Power Shifts in Global Health Diplomacy and New Models of Development: South–South Cooperation

South–South cooperation represents an alternative ideal to the model of rich northern countries providing aid to the poor countries of the southern hemisphere. It offers the prospect of mutual advantages for developing and emerging countries as well as a stronger voice in global diplomacy on social and economic issues. This chapter sets out to provide a balanced view of opportunities and challenges of South–South cooperation, outlining pertinent questions that emerge from this new dynamic of global governance. In the following sections, we briefly outline the history of South–South cooperation and describe its main mechanism and its application to health. We then discuss the paradigm shift from the former bipolar system during the Cold War to today’s global multipolar system. We demonstrate how the consolidation of multipolarity is particularly reflected in the (re)formation of regional blocks, notably in terms of their spheres of coordination and their engagement in different South–South cooperation mechanisms. The African Union (AU), the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), and the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR in its official Spanish acronym) serve as key examples to illustrate both the current state of South–South cooperation and emerging challenges that need to be addressed if South–South cooperation is to be effective and viable in the long term.