The Application of Delinking

Presenter: Dylan Bellerive

Faculty Sponsor: Deepika Marya

School: UMass Amherst

Research Area: Globalization and Development

Session: Poster Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM, Auditorium, A39

ABSTRACT

In this study, I researched the historical causes of dependency that have prevented equal development between the Global North and South to the modern day. I looked into the U.S.-backed international institutions that cemented core-periphery relationships, preventing developing nations from breaking away from low-wage, high-labor industries that fuel Western, capitalist expansion. Further, I employed the "delinking" theory from the prolific dependency theorist Samir Amin, who gives insight into how these nations can regain their fiscal autonomy and strengthen their political structures to combat this external pressure and imperial intervention from the West.
However, my findings will show that delinking is much easier for self-sufficient nations, such as China and Russia, which have the ability to cut ties with these nations trying to impose neoliberal capitalist ideologies. Most nations are subject to Western capitalist expansion as they lack this ability, being too small to delink without risking economic ruin from retaliatory measures from core nations. To solve this, I suggest a shift to multipolarity, through the formation of regional power blocs which can uplift these smaller nations and grant them more bargaining power on the world stage. My research exposes the current international system's reliance on keeping Third World nations economically suppressed and looks at regional power blocs as a method for delinking that could reform the global economy into one where all nations, and in turn people, have the chance to prosper equitably and grow together.

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