The Post-Southern world: why the “Global South” no longer exists

The “Global South” was always more slogan than strategy. In 2026, it is not even that. For decades, the term has served as convenient shorthand for a supposed bloc of developing nations united by its shared history of colonial grievances and a desire to challenge Western hegemony.

But recent diplomatic theater has exposed the term as somewhat of a dinosaur. While Western analysts keep scanning the horizon for a unified bloc marching in lockstep, actual diplomacy tells a story of hyper-cynical transactional realism.

The fiction falls apart

The fiction of a unified front has dissolved into a marketplace of power. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), currently sitting on the UN Security Council (UNSC) for the 2026-2027 term, has provided the clearest evidence of this shift.

Kinshasa recently signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement with Washington that grants American companies preferential access to cobalt, copper, and lithium reserves worth trillions of dollars.

The deal, formalised in December 2025 and expanded in early 2026, includes a Strategic Asset Reserve (SAR) designating specific mining assets for US investors. This occurred even as the DRC remains deeply indebted to Chinese state-backed creditors to the tune of more than $24 billion (R387.6 billion).

Chinese companies still control roughly 70% to 80% of the country’s cobalt output. But don’t misread the symptoms. China is not choosing a side in some newfangled Cold War; it is from both checkout lanes simultaneously. And there we have it: the future of international relations. An age of the sovereign free agent.

Chinese companies still control 70% to 80% of the country’s cobalt output. Kinshasa is not abandoning that relationship. It is running a second one alongside it, auctioning access from both checkout lanes at once. This is not a country choosing sides. This is the future of international relations: the sovereign free agent.

The new DRC model

The February 2026 Critical Minerals Ministerial in Washington confirmed this pattern. Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened representatives from 54 countries to announce the creation of FORGE, a preferential trade zone for critical minerals.

The US committed $30 billion (R484.5 billion) in letters of interest and loans. Simultaneously, the Trump administration launched Project Vault, a $10 billion (R161.5 billion) strategic minerals reserve.

None of this happened because the DRC abandoned China. It happened because Kinshasa understood that in 2026, the only ideology that matters is leverage. The DRC needs American military backing against M23 rebels in its eastern provinces, but it also needs Chinese processing infrastructure. By refusing to join a “bloc,” they have forced the superpowers into a bidding war.

What South Africa should be watching

South Africa’s recent trajectory has been a masterclass in what happens when you confuse non-alignment with immobility. Pretoria has long prided itself on being the moral heartbeat of the “Global South,” a position that gave it a G20 presidency but also significant diplomatic heartburn.

Following the expulsion of Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool from Washington in March 2025 and the imposition of a 30% tariff on South African goods, the relationship has hit a historic low. The U.S. boycotted the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November 2025.

President Trump has since excluded South Africa from the 2026 G20 events in Miami.

The new US ambassador, L. Brent Bozell III, arrived in mid-February 2026 with a mandate that looks less like traditional diplomacy and more like debt collection. While South Africa clings to a “Global South” identity, some of its peers are busy cutting the very bilateral deals Pretoria publicly decries.

The BRICS+ fallacy exposed

The expansion of BRICS was supposed to be a mortiferous nail in the coffin of Western dominance. Instead, it’s destabilised the group’s internal cohesion. Saudi Arabia, a key new member, skipped the Johannesburg G20. India, facing its own 50% US tariff threat, declined to send ships to the BRICS naval exercises off Simon’s Town in January 2026.

The DRC’s behaviour on the Security Council suggests that the “Global South” is no longer a voting bloc, and rather an assemblage of individual interests. You do not sign a minerals-for-security deal with Washington and then vote against their interests on the Council unless it suits your bottom line that particular Tuesday.

Colombia, the other new UNSC member, is playing the same game, backing UN veto restraint declarations to signal “values” while simultaneously negotiating private mineral frameworks with US mining giants.

The American blindspot

As usual, refusing to read the room, Washington continues to frame these deals as a victory for “democracy over autocracy.” The DRC is not choosing the American system; it is choosing American dollars and drones. When Chinese processing capacity remains the only viable route to market, Kinshasa maintains that relationship. Think it’s alignment? Ummm, try arbitrage.

For South Africa, the lesson is uncomfortable. Pretoria has spent years crafting an identity as leader of the developing world. That persona has earned it a genocide case at the International Court of Justice as well as the admiration of the global left. It’s also earned it exclusion from the biggest economic forums and a seat on the sidelines while the DRC auctions off the future of the green energy transition.

The marketplace of power

The nations thriving in 2026 are not necessarily those with the most principled foreign policies; they’re the ones with fungible assets. The “Global South” required solidarity and, in turn, it required trust. Trust, however, is the one commodity no one in 2026 is willing to overpay for.

South Africans watching this from London, Sydney, or Chicago should take note. Your country’s government believes it is leading a movement, and, yes, it is. But the movement’s other members are also busy cutting BIG deals.

The DRC now sits at the same table as the United States, holds billions in Chinese debt, and has handed Washington a list of mines for preferential investment.

If you squint, that does look a little like a rising “South,” but look more closely. It’s a market opening. And the price of entry is not just conviction. It’s cobalt