America's Influence on the Developing World May Be Waning
January 8, 2010
By: Benjamin Russell

The United States is finding that consensus among the world’s “free nations” is not as easy to achieve as it once was.  According to the Financial Times, South Africa, Turkey, Brazil and India, among the world’s largest and most important developing democracies, are increasingly defining their interests without regard for American preferences.

While the failures of the Copenhagen Summit present a salient example of the disconnect between the US and the developing world, the friction between the two is not reserved to climate change.   By building relationships with the US’ strategic competitors and striking an adversarial tone toward the developed world, Brazil, Turkey, India and South Africa have, in many cases, begun to view themselves as developing nations first, and as democracies second.  

Sources:

Financial Times – America is losing the free world
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3ef8f012-f969-11de-8085-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=

www.ccd21.org