7. Nationalist-Populism in the Global South and Middle East

This chapter deals with nationalist-populism in the global south. The term “global south,” refers to states, many of which are less-developed in the southern hemisphere. This vast region harbors both left-wing and right-wing populists with traits similar to populists in the United States, Europe, and Great Britain such as extreme nationalism, dislike of globalization, anti-liberal and authoritarian tendencies, and preoccupation with identity politics. We look at populism’s spread by region and then in particular countries. Hence, we start with right-wing and left-wing populism in Latin America, emphasizing its evolution from Peronism in Argentina, Cuba under the Castros, anti-American under Hugh Chávez and Nicolás Maduro, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and a later Trumpist version in Jair Bolsonaro as well as brief discussions of Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega, Bolivia’s Evo Morales, and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa. We then turn to Asia where nationalist-populist leaders in China, the Philippines, Myanmar, and India and leaders such as Xi, Duterte, Aung San Suu Kyi. and Narendra Modi have fostered populism in reaction to Muslim minorities, and Iran where dominant Shia Muslims Persians dominated Sunni and Arab minorities. We conclude by looking at the nationalism of Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser in the 1950s, and Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu were nationalist-populists.