As the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa gather in Johannesburg next week to discuss how to turn a loose club of nations accounting for a quarter of the global economy into a geopolitical force that can challenge the West’s dominance in world affairs, there are signs the group is moving closer to creating a bloc with genuine clout.
BRICS, formed in 2009, is already seeking to reform global governance systems and increase the representation of the Global South. Its New Development Bank wants to de-dollarize finance, offering an alternative to the much-criticized Breton Woods institutions that underpin the Western-dominated international system. And the bloc is in the process of embracing Iran, despite Western sanctions against the founding member.
The leaders from Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, also known as the BRICS, are expected to thrash out ways to boost trade and investment among themselves and the rest of the world. They will also look at how to strengthen the coordination of economic policies in the face of a growing threat of a global trade war.
A key point of discussion will be whether to create a BRICS currency to reduce dependence on the U.S. dollar, which accounts for 80 percent of all international transactions and nearly two-thirds of all currency reserves in central banks worldwide. Russia has championed the idea, which is locked in a bitter military and economic rivalry with the United States.
The five nations account for about a quarter of the world economy and have more than 40 percent of the world’s population. But the group’s attempts to punch above its weight have been constrained by various domestic challenges that have weakened at least some of the countries ability to project power. Russia is dealing with public discontent and economic stagnation, China’s supercharged growth period may be nearing its end, and India faces rising concerns about Chinese hegemony in the region.
At the same time, though, BRICS members share a skepticism of a global order that serves the interests of the United States and its rich-country allies by promoting international norms that they enforce but don’t always respect. That shared skepticism is the core of a political and economic coalition that will likely persist, whether the members can address their internal problems. And it is a coalition that could grow to include dozens of “Global South” states eager to join as the group seeks to blunt what some call the “Great Power hegemony” of the United States and the European Union.
