Revisiting Dependency Theory in the Age of South–South Cooperation

Abstract

The emergence of South–South Cooperation (SSC) has been represented as a necessary corrective to hierarchical aid models with numerous conditions of traditional North-South cooperation. This paper draws from dependency theory to ask if emerging powers - most notably, China, India, and Brazil are transforming or reproducing dependency dynamics within the model of cooperation offered through SSC frameworks. The core research question is: Does SSC truly challenge the tenets of dependency, or simply construct a new set of dependency relationships under an emergent metageopolitical context? Using a comparative qualitative methodology, the paper will offer a critical look at practices of development cooperation, through the examination of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Africa, as compared to India’s Lines of Credit and International Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC), and Brazil’s more limited technical assistance in agriculture. Findings report that while SSC often circumvents conditionalities, SSC cannot be stripped of strategic interests or asymmetries present in the dynamics of cooperation. That said, recipient countries seem to be exhibiting negotiated agency and are able to unsettle or reshape dependency from below. The paper concludes with a call to re-theorize dependency in a multipolar world - one that accepts the mobility of dependencies but also accounts for the changing capacities of Global South actors to resist and reconstruct development cooperation on their own terms.