Global South shows it’s ready to challenge unfair US-led world 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.

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.

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.

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