Dr Rajni Gamage1, Dr Nimendra Mawalagedara2
1Institute Of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 2Instructor, American College of Higher Education, Kandy, Sri Lanka
Biography:
Rajni Gamage is Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on the politics of governance, state transformation, and development and inequality in Sri Lanka. She holds a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from University of Queensland; Post-doctorate from NUS; MSc in International Relations from RSIS, NTU, and BSc in Political Science from NUS. Her writing includes Authoritarian Politics and Gender in Sri Lanka: A Survey (2024), Reforms in Sri Lanka: Emerging Trends in Elite Politics (2023), and Buddhist Nationalism, Authoritarian Populism and the Muslim Other in Sri Lanka (2021).
Abstract:
Contemporary geopolitical developments indicate significant transformations in international institutions and norms, with the emergence of a distinct power dynamic consolidating within the Global South (the peripheral states). This has implications for the future of the liberal international order. For Global South nations, such as Sri Lanka, these shifts offer potential opportunities to manoeuvre a historically unequal global system. This paper critically examines Sri Lanka’s foreign policy, particularly its historical commitment to non-alignment, a central pillar during the Cold War for countries seeking autonomy, and which requires a fundamental rethinking and re-evaluation.
Sri Lanka's protracted civil conflict and the 2022 economic crisis made the country increasingly reliant on foreign aid, investment, and international markets. In September 2024, a left-leaning government led by the National People’s Power was elected. Promising ‘system change’, the new government is exploring alternatives to its foreign policy options. The rise of BRICS presents one such ‘alternative’ avenue for South-South collaboration.
This paper applies Critical International Relations Theory to evaluate how Global South countries, such as Sri Lanka, are navigating a fast-evolving global power structure, where conventional paradigms of development aid, financial systems, and trade and diplomatic alliances are re-orienting. Extending Fareed Zakaria’s observation of ‘the rise of the rest,’ we argue that this development does not signal a breakdown of the rules based international order, but rather the emergence of an increasingly complex and fragmented alternative structure. We examine the impact of resulting competition between these emerging, fragmented alternative institutions and the mainstream international order.