The New World Order?

Am I too idealistic to think that perhaps there could be a new world order dedicated to fighting poverty and improving human rights? One that would not allow its developing economic muscle to become corrupted by greed and a desire for dominance at any cost, be it social or environmental. Could that really happen? Or am I just naive. Yeah, that's more likely.

But as we watch the United States and Europe melting down before our eyes, it seems that India, Brazil and South Africa are quietly conspiring to level the global playing field while keeping China at arms length.


Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about this coalition of three called the IBSA:

IBSA is not a security alliance -- Brazil and South Africa, after all, are harsh critics of India's nuclear program. What it is, rather, is an alliance that seeks to use democratic ideals to effectively reshape the U.N. and other international institutions to serve poor countries better. In a strange way, IBSA is a community of democracies from hell -- a group of countries with impeccable democratic credentials who are using that common identity to challenge rather than advance U.S. interests. International relations scholars call this "soft balancing" because rather than confronting the U.S., they are simply trying to restrain and reorient it. The reason this may work is that, as democracies, these countries have the moral stature in the international system to achieve those goals. Indian and Brazilian diplomats in particular, already among the world's best, can advance the IBSA agenda because they share common ideals.

Click here to read the full article.