Despite a research surge on regional powers in recent years, the instrumentalization of regions as launching pads for wider attempts to reshape the global order has attracted only minor interest. Yet, the existence of a regional-global nexus still comes across as a topical issue whenever the region is expected to function as a primary token of support towards such goals. We therefore explore how the regional status of Brazil and South Africa translates or not into actual followership at a global level. By assembling an original dataset on Brazilian and South African legislative output at the UNGA between 1994 and 2014, totalling over 5000 drafts, we monitor sponsorship patterns and thematic foci in order to verify whether these regional powers privilege their regional partners and topics. Our findings suggest that both countries indeed favour their immediate neighbourhoods but have also come to gradually perceive the utility of their respective regions in different ways. Both countries have also been unable to explicitly endorse an agenda that directly correlates to the needs of their potential regional followers.

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Regional Powers,UN General Assembly,Brazil,South Africa

• Political Science - Social Sciences