Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev seems intent on channeling the spirit of former Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser as a role model for de-colonization and advocacy of small nations. In the run-up to the annual UN climate conference, COP29, to be hosted by Azerbaijan, Aliyev is taking up the cause of South Pacific island states threatened by rising sea levels. It appears Aliyev hopes to use COP29, which will take place in November in Baku, as a springboard to prominence among the countries of the Global South in the broadest sense of the term. Such ambitions were on display in early June at …