Global South and the New World Order – Hope or Mirage?

News:

In April 2025, during the BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in Brazil, Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan delivered a pointed message: the world can no longer rely on a single hegemonic power to ensure global stability. He urged nations of the Global South — comprising developing countries across Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania — to rise collectively and lead the formation of a new global order. His remarks echo a growing chorus of voices dissatisfied with the prolonged dominance and declining credibility of US led global governance.

Comment:

The call for a new world order by the Global South arises from genuine disillusionment with the failures of unipolarity. For decades, the United States has leveraged international institutions and its military might to shape a global order centred on liberalism, capitalism, secularism, and its strategic interests. However, prolonged military interventions, economic inequalities, and an ever-increasing national debt have weakened its legitimacy and global standing.

The moral and structural cracks in American leadership are now visible — from the human toll of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond, to its unwavering support for the illegal Jewish entity amidst egregious human rights violations in Palestine. These factors have accelerated the search for alternative models of global leadership, with multipolarity emerging as a potential future framework.

Yet, while the Global South is often cited as a possible engine of that new world order, significant limitations persist. The bloc remains a fragmented assembly of nations without:

• A shared ideological foundation;
• Coordinated political or military strategy;
• Institutional or governance structures for collective leadership.

Its members vary widely in political systems, economic interests, and geopolitical alignments — and many remain deeply dependent on external powers for trade, security, and technological infrastructure. Without a cohesive worldview or a unifying mission, the Global South is unlikely to present a credible alternative to the fading unipolar order.

In contrast, Islam offers a historically grounded and ideologically complete vision for global leadership. Under the Khilafah (Caliphate), the Muslim world once established a comprehensive civilizational model — one that governed across continents with justice, economic stability, and intellectual achievement. Unlike secular ideologies, Islam’s worldview is divinely anchored, holistic, and naturally aligned with human dignity and justice.

Today, the Muslim world holds the necessary ingredients for leadership: a vast population, immense natural resources, strategic geography, and most importantly, a unifying aqidah. What remains is the political will to overcome division and re-establish collective governance rooted in Sharia.

The decline of U.S. dominance signals a rare geopolitical opening. However, unless the Muslim Ummah seizes this moment with ideological clarity and unity of purpose, the vision of a new world order will remain a mirage. Leadership cannot be outsourced — it must be reclaimed. Islam is not only capable of leading a just world order — it is destined to.