Consider it the modern form of Switzerland: hegemonic neutrality. If you're on the outside of the hegemony looking in, you may form a counter balance (BRICS) and/or may make a show of not taking...
South Africa was standing aside from any disagreement between the USA, Russia, and China
Consider it the modern form of Switzerland: hegemonic neutrality.
If you're on the outside of the hegemony looking in, you may form a counter balance (BRICS) and/or may make a show of not taking sides or brokering between parties or even supporting “both sides” if your peers start a kerfluffle. You may also be less motivated or aligned to support Ukraine than the standard presumption of embedded liberalism would suggest.
More practically, if your coffers overflow from exports (it doesn't take much make a difference in most of the world) and liberalism is not your bag, you can leverage a heritage of patromonialism in target states as neopatromonialism to enlarge your sphere of influence and support, not to mention generate future customers.
As to whether that will work out for everyone, hegemonic stability theory (“HST”) says maybe not, and thus for those whose coffers are less full, a strategy of playing it both ways.
Consider it the modern form of Switzerland: hegemonic neutrality.
If you're on the outside of the hegemony looking in, you may form a counter balance (BRICS) and/or may make a show of not taking sides or brokering between parties or even supporting “both sides” if your peers start a kerfluffle. You may also be less motivated or aligned to support Ukraine than the standard presumption of embedded liberalism would suggest.
More practically, if your coffers overflow from exports (it doesn't take much make a difference in most of the world) and liberalism is not your bag, you can leverage a heritage of patromonialism in target states as neopatromonialism to enlarge your sphere of influence and support, not to mention generate future customers.
As to whether that will work out for everyone, hegemonic stability theory (“HST”) says maybe not, and thus for those whose coffers are less full, a strategy of playing it both ways.