Introduction

The role of Southern powers in contemporary global governance has become particularly notable after the emergence of the G-20 Leaders Summit in 2008 as the new forum for managing the post-crisis global economy. Since then global governance has been significantly affected by the willingness and capacity of Southern powers to participate in managing and re-building the existing institutional order. These powers face the challenge of re-shaping existing configurations of power to institutionalise their emerging status and reforming institutions that were originally designed to serve the collective interests of the Western world. For scholars of international relations, the long-term effects of such a process remain unknown. Some believe that the rise of leading developing countries such as China, Brazil, India and South Africa is likely to cause systemic changes that will ultimately lead to a system of great power conflict and the collapse of existing institutional arrangements (Layne, 2012). Other theorists, however, stress that Southern powers appear unwilling to pursue revisionist politics and undermine the very system of global governance that has facilitated their emergence and within which they seek to further ascend (Ikenberry, 2010). The attempt to delineate the possible paths to cooperation and conflict in global governance necessitates understanding the world views, interests and strategies of these Southern states.