For decades, Europe believed that the power of the norm was enough to shape the world. He spoke the language of law, diplomacy and multilateral institutions, the language of predictability, rule and formal legitimacy. It was this grammar that sustained its influence and gave it moral authority in the post-war period. But the world has changed dialects. Power is no longer expressed just in treaties, but in infrastructure, technology, energy and narrative influence. And in this new global grammar, the South stopped being just a geographic space: it became a political subject with its own voice and a distinct language.
The Global South speaks the language of urgency. It is a language of survival, built from scarcity and need. When he discusses security, he talks about food sovereignty; when he talks about development, he talks about energy autonomy; when he claims power, he speaks of historical recognition. His grammar is pragmatic, direct and deeply rooted in experience. He distrusts the moralistic rhetoric of the North and the universalist promise of a model that never fully included him.
Europe, in turn, continues to translate the world into normative codes. He believes that legitimacy arises from the law and that consensus is the path to order. But this conviction comes from a privilege: having lived decades of stability, prosperity and peace. For those who have never had it, the norm is not enough and vulnerability cannot be resolved with speeches. The South speaks in terms of resilience, adaptation and survival, while Europe continues to speak in terms of regulation, compliance and values.
There is, however, a possible point of convergence: both recognize that security is no longer military but has become existential. Climate change, technological chains, energy crises and new strategic dependencies are reconfiguring the map of power and cooperation. This is where Europe can relearn how to listen and not just talk. You can see that influence, today, is not only measured by strength, but by the ability to translate languages and build trust.
Understanding the language of the Global South does not mean giving up European values, but translating them to a world that no longer considers them universal. Power is no longer exercised through moral protection and becomes negotiation – an interaction between distinct identities, memories and realities. Europe needs to think strategically again, act like player and competitive, and abandon the paternalism that keeps it distant from global reality. Only in this way will it transform values into power and power into presence, in a system that no longer recognizes hierarchies, but balances.
21st century grammar will not just be written in Brussels, Washington or Beijing. It will be polyphonic, written in multiple voices, with accents from Lagos, Jakarta, Brasília and Nairobi. The real question is not whether the South will learn to speak like Europe, but whether Europe will be able to speak and act as a strategic power in a world that is no longer convinced by speeches, but by results.
PhD in International Security