This thesis looks at India as a development partner compared to Dutch development cooperation. This thesis aims to find out if the South-South cooperation approach to development is differing from...Show moreThis thesis looks at India as a development partner compared to Dutch development cooperation. This thesis aims to find out if the South-South cooperation approach to development is differing from a traditional donor approach to development cooperation. The comparative framework used is based on assumed differences between SSC and NSC derived from the literature review and claims made by SSC emerging partners like India. The factors are terminology, the rejection of conditionality, horizontal partnerships, agency of partner/recipient, and capacity building. This study contributes to the academic debate on the changing global power dynamics in the liberal world order, with emerging powers like India challenging the traditional development approach. They are claiming a more visible and active role in the field of international development. Through comparative analyses, the following research question will be answered: In what ways is the development partnership between India and Africa different from the traditional development cooperation approach of the Netherlands in Africa?Show less
Since the early 2000s, China has experimented with a range of development-oriented diplomatic initiatives based on multilateral regionalism. One of these initiatives is the Macau Forum, a grouping...Show moreSince the early 2000s, China has experimented with a range of development-oriented diplomatic initiatives based on multilateral regionalism. One of these initiatives is the Macau Forum, a grouping created in 2003 that brings China together with nine lusophone countries to promote economic and trade exchanges. This case study investigates China’s motives for creating and maintaining this multilateral project and examines perceptions from its lusophone participants. The significance of this analysis is that it provides a more granular understanding of the rationale and results of China’s ever-increasing promotion of alternative international development cooperation frameworks in the Global South. To research this topic, I relied primarily on historically-contextualised discourse analysis of primary material from diplomatic and academic sources. Results of this analysis reveal that China was motivated (1) to promote and test out a Chinese vision of development cooperation, (2) to strengthen Macau’s integration with mainland China and (3) to secure Beijing's diplomatic recognition among lusophone countries. Commentary from lusophone diplomats, however, highlights the lack of perceived concrete benefits for the Macau Forum’s participant members. On this basis, the Macau Forum can be likened to other China-led multilateral regional initiatives, such as the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), that are balanced asymmetrically in China’s favour.Show less
This research paper explored the passport through a postcolonial lens. An existing passport hierarchy motivated the questioning of the performative role that the passport plays in subordinating and...Show moreThis research paper explored the passport through a postcolonial lens. An existing passport hierarchy motivated the questioning of the performative role that the passport plays in subordinating and marginalizing the Global South. It was found that through the process of “Othering,” the passport has played a role in consolidating colonial legacy. To investigate this, a Critical discourse analysis was conducted on the Egyptian film Assal Eswed (2010) to gain better understanding on the discourse around passports and how the Global South is made to feel inferior through it. The film was mapped into themes which display power relations rooted in colonial history. The findings are useful in understanding several key debates in International Relations such as, immigration, refugee crisis, power relations, and colonial legacy.Show less
This thesis is about power relations behind the development of historically themed videogames set in the Global South. The thesis has taken into account games released in the Western World as well...Show moreThis thesis is about power relations behind the development of historically themed videogames set in the Global South. The thesis has taken into account games released in the Western World as well as in the Global South between 2000 and 2020. The main argument is that historically themed videogames set and developed in the Global South do not have the power to add to, differ from or change the representations made about their countries in the Western World.Show less
The reassessment of Global South contribution to International Relations both in the past and present time, is a crucial challenge for academic research nowadays, constituting an issue that is...Show moreThe reassessment of Global South contribution to International Relations both in the past and present time, is a crucial challenge for academic research nowadays, constituting an issue that is worthy of interest and analysis for its implications on History and International Relations. This work aims to decentralize International Relations and make it less Eurocentric. To do so, the author reassessed the role of Latin American thinkers and diplomats in Human Rights theorization in the 1940s, to show that crucial theoretical developments were made outside the Global North. In detail, this thesis argues that the region has actively participated in the construction of the language of human rights instead of simply receiving ideas and concepts from the Global North. It focuses on the Larreta Doctrine, a doctrine developed in Uruguay that tackled multilateralism, sovereignty and the violation of human rights. Eduardo Rodriguez Larreta, then Uruguayan Foreign Minister, theorized this Doctrine in 1945, in response to the dualism between sovereignty and international Rights protection hardly felt in the Latin American Region. So, Larreta thought that the idea that non-intervention in states’ domestic affairs is conditional to the respect for citizens’ fundamental rights. Moreover, the Uruguayan Foreign Minister stated that a precommitment regime and collective intervention are not a violation of sovereignty.Show less
The Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 were established in the 1960s as two organizations working primarily through the United Nations to represent the issues and interests of the Global...Show moreThe Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 were established in the 1960s as two organizations working primarily through the United Nations to represent the issues and interests of the Global South. This thesis researches why the Non-Aligned Movement and the Group of 77 have not merged together despite their overwhelming similarities. In addition, it is researched what the (dis)advantages of merging together would be for the two organizations.Show less
