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Global South

American  
[gloh-buhl south] / ˈgloʊ bəl ˈsaʊθ /
Or global south

noun

  1. the low- or middle-income countries located in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania; Third World.

    The article argues that poverty in the Global South stems from European exploitation of its natural resources.


Etymology

Origin of Global South

First recorded in 1965–70; not literally referring to the Southern Hemisphere, but continuing the 20th century contrasts between the wealthy industrial north and the poverty-stricken agricultural south, and probably beginning with Antonio Gramsci’s essay “The Southern Question” (1926), in which he argued southern Italy had, in effect, been colonized by capitalists from northern Italy

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Amid all this, countries of the Global South—especially Brazil, India and South Africa—position themselves between the West and the Eastern autocracies.

From The Wall Street Journal

Mr. Stubb’s solution is a proposed “rebalancing” of the world, winning over the Global South through a new Helsinki.

From The Wall Street Journal

Like the Helsinki Accords of 1975 to which he is referring—at which the democratic West and the Soviet Union came together to try to lessen Cold War tensions—a new Helsinki would be multilateral, rather than multipolar like the Yalta and Potsdam accords that partitioned Europe after World War II. The Global South would complete what Mr. Stubb calls a new “triangle of power” alongside the Global West and the Global East.

From The Wall Street Journal

The Finnish president’s “values-based realism” may not sway the Global South, but it could well reinvigorate the U.K., the European Union, Japan, Canada and a host of other countries that cumulatively command the resources to defend at least part of the existing order.

From The Wall Street Journal

With co-author Andrew Nelson, Rob authored the book "Journey Without End: Migration from the Global South through the Americas," published by Vanderbilt University Press in 2023.

From The Wall Street Journal