ZEF Public Lecture on Fighting for a New International Order – The BRICS
February 20, 2025 | 13:30 h - 14:30 h
ZEF Public Lecture
Topic: Fighting for a New International Order – The BRICS
Speaker: Prof. John P. Neelsen, Department of Sociology, Tübingen University
Venue: Room 3.032 and online
Abstract: In particular the highly populated countries of the global South benefited from the policies of neoliberal globalization. Initiated by Anglo-Saxon governments in the early 1980s, they became attractive targets for Western transnational capital, not least because of their low labor costs. International value chains were created leading to accelerated capital accumulation, economic development, and the growth of a middle class. Eventually, their GDP began to surpass that of the Western industrialized countries leading to demands for commensurate influence in the global governance architecture. In 2009, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China, soon joined by South Africa, symbolizing their identity as ex-colonial Third World countries, met for the first of what has become an annual BRICS summit.
Initial calls for reform of international economic organizations were soon followed by criticism of the existing Western-dominated world order. A multipolar system based on the UN Charter and international law is to replace the unipolar "values and rules-based order" proclaimed by the West. The wars in Ukraine and especially in Gaza have accelerated the process of polarization, including the expansion of BRICS membership, and confrontation because the West, and not least its leader, the USA, want to maintain their global hegemony, if necessary by military means.
John P.Neelsen, Prof. Dr. phil., Department of Sociology, Tübingen University. Guest lectureships i.a. at the Universities of Benares/India, Nancy/France, Zurich/Switzerland, Berlin, Bremen and Bochum.
Principal fields of research: sociology of development, North-South relations, political economy, human rights.
The presentation will be in hybrid mode; the in-house colleagues are expected to attend in person. Please be also invited to join us for coffee/tea and cookies after the public lecture.
Register in advance for this meeting:
https://uni-bonn.zoom-x.de/meeting/register/fP_1sYFlS4uzd4QnbFlSCg