In the long view of history, "madness" is rarely a break from reason. More often, it is reason pushed to its breaking point. We have reached that juncture with the Global South.
To the elites in Davos or Washington, the new assertiveness of developing nations—their skepticism of mandates, their new alliances, their demands for a financial overhaul—looks like a descent into chaos. It isn't. It is a diagnosis of a broken system. The rules are proclaimed as universal, yet practised with a hypocrisy that is now impossible to ignore.
The pattern is stark. Developing nations are lectured on "fiscal discipline" and forced to cut food subsidies. Meanwhile, wealthy Western powers pour billions into protecting their own industries under the convenient banner of national security. Emerging economies are told to keep their markets open at any cost; advanced economies shutter theirs the moment the political winds shift.
For decades, the system relied on a lopsided contract: the Global South was the "responsible actor." It was expected to absorb shocks it did not create. Whether it was a financial contagion born in the West, a global pandemic, or a climate emergency driven by Northern industrialisation, the prescription never changed: tighten your belt, liberalise your markets, and wait for a reward that never comes.
But the mask has slipped. The very powers that styled themselves as guardians of a "rules-based order" now treat those rules as optional. Protectionism is back. Trade is a weapon. The liberal order is honoured only when it serves Western interests—and shelved when it does not.
From this vantage point, a "mad" Global South is not a threat. It is a reckoning. Why is it "prudent" when major powers redefine rules for their own interest, yet "destabilising" when a developing country does the same? Why is "strategic autonomy" a virtue in Washington or Brussels, but a heresy in Cairo, Brasilia, or Pretoria?
If the Global South acts on this—quietly and pragmatically—the Washington Consensus will be the first to crack. We know now that the most successful nations were those that ignored the prescribed formulas to protect their own stability.
This must extend to the IMF and the World Bank. These 1945-era relics are frozen in time. When Southern leaders demand debt restructuring or link climate burdens to financial responsibility, they aren't dismantling the system. They are trying to stop it from rotting.
International systems rarely collapse in a single explosion. They erode as contradictions pile up and rules are applied selectively. A more assertive Global South isn't looking for chaos; it is looking for clarity. Restraint without reciprocity is not stability. Rules without justice will not endure.
The writer is the head of the International Relations Unit and Energy Programme at Al-Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies
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