How to locate the global south

THE GLOBALsouth is . It is everywhere because political leaders, including Joe Biden, Narendra Modi, Emmanuel Macron and Xi Jinping, have recently adopted the term. And yet it is nowhere. The global south is not labelled on any map nor in any atlas. Indeed, many countries considered part of it are actually in the northern hemisphere. Such cartographical contortions are silly—but then so is talk of “the West” when its coterie includes Australia and New Zealand.The simplest working definition of the global south is that it refers to most, but not quite all, non-Western countries. Some analysts would rather ditch the term altogether, arguing it is too amorphous to be helpful. Yet it does convey useful information. The rise of the phrase reflects the rise of the countries themselves. And it denotes a wide-ranging critique of Western countries’ policies that is sometimes valid, but also sometimes veers into nihilism.