March 2023 – Debating Development Research

27/03/2023

The Global South and the return of geopolitics

By Wil Hout / New Rhythms of Development blog series

Students of international relations are typically familiarised with the work of Alfred Thayer Mahan and Halford Mackinder, who both stressed the relevance of geographical dominance for great power status. Mahan focused on the role of sea power, while Mackinder’s notion of the ‘heartland’ (which referred to Eastern Europe) stressed control of land masses as a central factor for great power status. Mahan and Mackinder’s work is usually discussed to illustrate the popularity of geopolitical thinking at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century.

13/03/2023

Securing sufficient, sustainable energy for-all needs a massive reduction in global inequality

By Joel Millward-Hopkins

Few people believe that the world’s poorest should remain in their current situation of material poverty – and fewer still would admit such a belief in public. Perhaps even fewer believe that it would be acceptable for humans to trigger a global ecological disaster. Most can thus agree that there are billions around the world for whom living standards should be improved, and that humans should endeavour to keep the only habitat in our solar system habitable.

02/03/2023

#GlobalJustice: Learning and activism through social media

By Madeleine Le Bourdon

In an era of ‘Fake News’ and polarised mainstream media, is social media educating young people or exacerbating misconceptions on global injustices? At the height of COVID-19 lockdowns around the world, we saw an acceleration of online soci a l justice campaigns, with localised injustices connecting to global audiences. With this traction came an evolution of the way these campaigns engaged users. Accounts and posts dedicated to educating on social injustices through infographics, threads and audio-visuals trended widely.