Wider Eurasia
Living by One's Own Wits: The World Majority in Search of Independent Decision-Making
Valdai Discussion Club Conference Hall, Tsvetnoy Boulevard 16/1, Moscow, Russia
List of speakers

On October 10, the Valdai Discussion Club hosted a presentation of the report “The World Majority and Its Interests.” The moderator of the event, Timofey Bordachev, lead author and editor of the report, explained that this refers to the absolute majority of countries in the world that are not directly involved in either the military-political conflict between Russia and the West or the confrontation between China and the United States, and prefer not to take sides in these confrontations. How are the interests of countries in this group formed and evolving? What can we expect from them in the future and how will their behaviour affect the development of international politics and the global economy?

Bordachev noted that the term “world majority” has so far been adopted mainly in Russia, while these countries themselves are searching for their own definitions and other intellectual tools to determine their role in a changing world. The report pays special attention to the importance of the countries of the world majority in the current conflict between Russia and the West. It is important that we are talking about countries that have not assented to the measures of economic warfare against Russia, but whose companies are often forced to comply with the so-called sanctions. In fact, these are countries that are by their nature equidistant from Russia, the United States, and China and try to make decisions independently as much as possible. This can be called a desire to live by one's own wits and pursue a multi-vector policy, Bordachev believes. But these actions inevitably affect what the world order will be like in the future.

Wider Eurasia
The World Majority and Its Interests
Timofei Bordachev
The emergence, in 2022, of a large group of countries, which in the Russian foreign policy discourse is referred to as the “World Majority,” came as a most meaningful event in the modern-day international life.
Reports

Lidiya Kulik, PhD in History; Head of India Studies, SKOLKOVO School of Management; Senior Research Fellow, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences, called the study extremely timely. Having considered India as a typical example, she pointed out that, despite the diversity of the world majority, the distinctive feature of its countries is that, while they do not want to join any blocs, they demand maximum respect for their position. In each of these countries, there are objectively formed interest groups that are oriented toward different blocs and different sides of the confrontation. This creates a new phenomenon, a kind of “multi-alignment”. Kulik added that, as the study rightly states, a unified Russian policy towards the countries of the world majority is impossible. It is necessary to develop regional studies and consider the situation with each country separately. It is important that many of the countries of the world majority are united by a development agenda, and it makes sense for Russia as a whole to focus on it.

Nourhan ElSheikh, Professor of Political Science at Cairo University; Member of the Egyptian Council for International Affairs, believes that the increasing role of the world majority is one of the largest transformations in the world. She emphasised that the world majority is an established fact, the significance of which is growing. “This is a key phenomenon that is necessary for both the Global South and the entire world,” she said, adding that it probably makes sense to institutionalise it and create within its framework some tools for coordinating activities in international structures. This is especially important against the backdrop of the West’s attempts to fragment the world majority, El-Sheikh asserts.

Mayya Nikolskaya, Acting Director of the Centre for African Studies at the Institute of International Studies at MGIMO University and co-author of the report, clarified that when speaking about the majority of countries in the world being outside of global confrontations, it should be clarified that this is only about non-alignment with one camp or another. They can very well serve as an arena for confrontation, and, for example, African countries are precisely the field in which the competition between the United States and China is most obvious. As a result, attention to Africa in the world is rapidly increasing, and this even causes serious concerns on the continent, including those generating a push away from the “Global North” (or “collective West”) as a source of recolonisation and geopolitical expansion. Thus, according to Nikolskaya, two trends are currently being observed among African countries: one aimed at reforming the existing global structure and one aimed at finding alternative options.