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Inaugural Essay Russia – Ukraine War and the Contest for a NewWorld Order: A Global South Perspective
AUTHOR(S)
Sk. Tawfique M. Haque, Raymond Kwun-Sun Lau

It has been over 300 days since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022. The war between Russia and Ukraine, which began in 2014, has largely been viewed from a Eurocentric or Western perspective. From a Global South perspective, this crisis can be seen as part of a broader pattern of great powers’ competition for influence and control in the region, often at the expense of smaller, weaker states. The conflict also has ramifications throughout the world, as countries scramble to align themselves with either Russia or the West, thereby exacerbating existing political and economic tensions. Additionally, the conflict has come at a huge humanitarian cost, with thousands of people displaced and suffering as a result of the fighting. Furthermore, the economic sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia in response to its actions in Ukraine could be seen as further exacerbating economic and political instability in the Global South. These countries have criticized the sanctions for their impact on the global economy and for causing economic hardship for their own citizens. In a major speech on the war in Ukraine, US President Joe Biden argued that the conflict is a clear test for democracies around the world, and he portrayed the Ukrainian resistance against Russian forces as part of a “great battle for freedom:” “a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force” (The White House, 2022). By

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