Informal governance and the Global South: legacies of Non-Aligned Movement, prospects of BRICS

The influence of non-Western informal intergovernmental organisations (IIGOs) in providing an alternative, more flexible cooperative platform to solve pressing global governance challenges should not be overlooked, even if their impact on global governance dynamics remains contested. The study adopts a comparative approach to investigate the function and impact of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and BRICS on global governance trends as it relates to development necessity. While similarities between NAM and BRICS abound when taking into consideration the heterogeneity of its membership and commitment to multilateralism, differences are equally glaring. With differing levels of institutionalisation, these two examples of ‘south–south’ IIGOs have had a rather different impact on the global governance stage. Contextualising them in their own respective international dynamics, this inquiry highlights NAM’s and BRICS’ differing purposes, posturing, and (relative) successes in dethroning the existing world order of their time.