Peter T.C Chang
The recent G77 summit calling for global governance reform and South Africa’s ICJ genocide case against Israel underline developing nations’ distaste for – and willingness to act against – the Western-centric global order
With its diminishing soft power, the US remains resolved to preserve its dominance by leveraging hard power. Meanwhile, nations in the Global South must persevere in transforming the current world order through peaceful means.
Harvard University president Claudine Gay has resigned after a firestorm of controversies, including claims of her inadequate response to antisemitism on campus, yet the Gaza crisis remains a hot-button issue at the university. Administrators are now wrestling with the daunting task of safeguarding freedom of speech amid growing concerns about rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.
On the battlefield, there is no restraint on inflammatory rhetoric, as extremists from both sides have vowed the total destruction of the other. For instance, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s citation of a biblical reference to Amalek was widely condemned as an explicit call for the extermination of the Palestinian people.
At the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Netanyahu’s invocation emerged as evidence in South Africa’s case accusing Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Ruling on the case last month, the United Nations’ highest judiciary body did not call for a ceasefire, but instead ordered Israel to take measures preventing any acts of genocide.
As anticipated, the ICJ’s ruling has had minimal impact on Israel’s strategy. Netanyahu persists in rejecting a two-state solution and continues to wage a relentless military assault.
Following the US air strikes in Iraq and Syria, in retaliation for the loss of three American soldiers in Jordan, the Gaza crisis is in danger of escalating into a wider regional conflict.
Though South Africa failed to secure a ceasefire in Gaza, its case against Israel at The Hague is a pivotal moment with broad significance: it signals the readiness of the Global South to challenge the existing Western-dominated international order that it perceives as unfair.
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In January, the Group of 77 developing countries, including China, gathered in Uganda to advocate for reform of the global governance system that they say must better mirror the realities of today’s world. Addressing the summit, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres remarked that the current international system is “out of date, out of time, and out of step, reflecting a bygone age when many of your countries were colonised”.
Also at the summit, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni urged his fellow leaders from the developing world to “work collectively to ensure that we achieve an international economic order that is just and equitable”.
The G77 push for change reflects the continued trajectory initiated by China’s ascent, fostering social-economic uplift in the Global South, and progressively shifting the global economic centre of gravity away from the West.
The Gaza crisis, especially the South African case against
Israel, represents another significant reconfiguration in the geopolitical
sphere – namely, the gradual displacement of the presumed stature of the US as
the central custodian of global peace.
The roles of Kampala and Pretoria highlight two distinct aspects in the ongoing reconfiguration of the world order. While China is often portrayed as the primary instigator, the G77 summit and South Africa’s advocacy in the ICJ reveal that other nations are equally eager to reshape the US-led order.
Interestingly, there exists a de facto division of labour, with China spearheading the economic transformation while countries like Uganda and South Africa strive to bring about a fairer and more just global governance system.
America is not passively accepting these reconfigurations, however. In response to its relative decline in the economic domain, the US is waging an extensive trade and technology war to contain China’s rise.
In the geopolitical sphere, notwithstanding a foreign policy tainted by moral ambiguity, President Joe Biden still upholds the perception of America as a force for good. Similarly, the Republican Party, especially its religious right-wing, maintains a steadfast conviction in the US’ manifest destiny as a “city upon a hill”.
That said, should Donald Trump return to power, he would be less inclined to grandstand morally. Instead, he is more likely to pursue his MAGA vision with an amoral zeal.
Without question, the US maintains military superiority even amid a decline in its economic and geopolitical standing. Following the setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington has become more hesitant to deploy ground troops. Still, the US military retains the capacity to inflict substantial damage through proxy wars and remote bombing missions, as demonstrated by the ongoing air strikes against Iran-backed militias.
Biden’s military response to the escalating Middle East crisis shows that, despite its diminishing soft power, the US remains determined to utilise its hard power to sustain global dominance.
The former Harvard Kennedy School dean Joseph Nye, who popularised the term “soft power” in the late 1980s, recently drew a parallel between the campus unrest over Harvard’s response to the Gaza war and the protests during the Vietnam era in the late 1960s. However, Nye said that the campus violence he experienced during the Vietnam war was worse.
Nonetheless, in Gaza, the horrific violence inflicted on the Palestinian people continues. According to experts, the relentless Israeli bombardments of the Gaza strip now rank among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history. And as the US continues its retaliatory strikes in the Middle East, there is grave concern that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is expanding into a broader regional war.
The ICJ ruling did not halt the bloodshed in Gaza but the global community must continue to support South Africa’s efforts to hold Israel accountable for the atrocities committed against Palestinians. On a broader scale, countries of the Global South must leverage the G77 momentum and persevere in transforming the prevailing Western-centric world order into a more equitable one, all achieved through peaceful means.
Peter T.C. Chang is a research associate at the Institute of China Studies, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
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