King's College London

Editorial overview of conference special issue relating to:
From 7 to 11 August 2015, over a hundred international scholars met in Livingstone, Zambia to consider southern Africa’s place in the world in the context of the western powers’ apparent decline. Although other ‘south-south’ relationships were considered, the conference primarily focused on southern Africa’s relationship with ‘the BRICS’, an economic consortium made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Last to join, South Africa is also, economically, the ‘least’ (though it represents a crucial ‘gateway’ to sub-Saharan Africa).