scholarly journals Rethinking “Alliances”: The Case of South Africa as a Rising Power

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Christopher Williams ◽  
Mihaela Papa
Keyword(s):  
Author(s):  
Kai Michael Kenkel

Over the past two decades, a number of states have risen to take on substantial roles in peacebuilding efforts across the globe. China, Brazil, India, South Africa, and Turkey, among others, have become major players in their regions and beyond. This chapter analyzes how peacebuilding serves as the locus for these states to contest the rules underpinning the international order and to stake their claim to influence. These states have to date worked within the dominant liberal paradigm rather than revamping it; thus they have brought significant improvements in legitimacy and efficacy through their domestic experiences. The chapter identifies the commonalities that Southern rising powers apply to peacebuilding, as well as divergent characteristics that hamper its spread. It provides a definition of this class of states apt for analyzing their peace policies and crystallizes elements of a Southern-based rising-power contribution to global peace. Examples are given of how these states have sought to multilateralize their cooperation and act consistently within the United Nations. The analysis then takes a closer look at the practices of Brazil and India, two major rising powers from the Global South.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 285-300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rory Horner

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how established multinational enterprises (MNEs) have responded to the perceived threat from rising power firms by seeking to alter the intellectual property institutional environment in key emerging economies. Design/methodology/approach – The key place of emerging economies in the efforts of established MNEs to seek patent law change is discussed. Two case studies review developments related to pharmaceutical patents in India and South Africa, highlighting the influence of MNEs in driving policy change and the contested nature of their actions. Findings – While India and South Africa both present evidence of MNEs seeking to influence pharmaceutical patent laws, distinct differences emerge. In India, most MNE pressure has been in response to the emergence of an active domestic industry and a patent law oriented towards generic entry, while the MNE priority in South African has been geared towards maintaining MNE dominance and a system which leads to generous granting of patents. Practical implications – Managers and decision-makers seeking to invest in emerging economies must take account of a plethora of institutions present, which may be better suited towards local industrial and consumer interests and may prompt resistance to any established MNE-led attempt at institutional change. Originality/value – The article offers a comparative perspective on pharmaceutical patent laws in India and South Africa, which have been subject to significant contestation by policymakers, civil society organisations and both rising power and established MNEs. The comparison explores and questions the increasingly widespread “institutional void” thesis in international business.


Author(s):  
Martin Binder ◽  
Autumn Lockwood Payton

Abstract The rise of non-Western powers has led to competing claims about how these states act among each other and how they behave vis-à-vis established powers. Existing accounts argue that the rising powers are a heterogenous group of competing states and that they are socialized into the existing Western-centered order. This article challenges these claims, arguing that the rising powers are dissatisfied with the international status quo and that they have begun to form a bloc against the established powers. The authors contend that this dissatisfaction arises from their lack of influence on the international stage, their status in the international hierarchy and the norms that sustain the current international order. They maintain that the formation of a rising powers bloc is driven by the countries’ economic growth and international dynamics, fostering their institutionalization as IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) and BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). To support this argument, the study combines spatial modeling techniques to analyze rising power voting behavior in the UN General Assembly over the period 1992–2011.


1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.


Author(s):  
Alex Johnson ◽  
Amanda Hitchins

Abstract This article summarizes a series of trips sponsored by People to People, a professional exchange program. The trips described in this report were led by the first author of this article and include trips to South Africa, Russia, Vietnam and Cambodia, and Israel. Each of these trips included delegations of 25 to 50 speech-language pathologists and audiologists who participated in professional visits to learn of the health, education, and social conditions in each country. Additionally, opportunities to meet with communication disorders professionals, students, and persons with speech, language, or hearing disabilities were included. People to People, partnered with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), provides a meaningful and interesting way to learn and travel with colleagues.


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