Russia, the Global South and Global Governance: Russia’s Geostrategic Reorientation and Its Implications for the G7

Emerging fault-lines in the global landscape and Russia’s geostrategic reorientation away from the West prompt a need to understand Moscow’s foreign policy beyond war-fighting. Russia’s bid to shape the political, economic and socio-cultural contours of a ‘multipolar’ order, exploiting the dissatisfaction of countries in the Global South (GS) with Western-led global governance, is still poorly understood. This policy brief aims to open up fresh perspectives by exploring the multi-faceted challenges arising from Russia’s relations with the GS. The authors recommend that the G7 pays greater attention to the priorities of GS countries, while rethinking its own messaging and intervention policies there. G7 nations should also foster relevant language/area expertise across their diplomatic and expert communities, engaging in the reform of multilateral institutions based on track 1.5/2 interaction with GS countries and, where possible, with Russia.