China's Effort to Replace the Western-led Liberal International Order

 The Pacific Review published in December 2023 a study titled "China's 'Do-as-I-Do' Paradigm: Practice-based Normative Diplomacy in the Global South" by Jeremy Garlick, Prague University of Economics and Business, and Fangxing Qin, Beijing Foreign Studies University.  

This study argues that China expects partner countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America to model their behavior and discourse on the example set by Beijing without significant disagreement.  Countries in the Global South have begun to alter their behavior (e.g. frequent reference to win-win cooperation) along the normative lines expected by Beijing rather than those enshrined in the Western-led liberal international order.  Nevertheless, there is still space for counter initiatives from the West.  

Commentary on Western Policy in Somalia

Ahmed M.I. Egal published a well written and thoughtful, if excessively critical of Western policy and the Somali diaspora, commentary titled "Destination Oblivion: The Failure of Western Policy in Somalia" for the 7 Jun 2012 issue of Pambazuka News. He emphasized, correctly in my view, that the principal problem facing Somalis has been the "collapse of political consent in the country" that predates the fall of Siad Barre.

Click here to read the commentary.