Impact Of BRICS

Today’s global governance institutions were built around the emergence of the United States of America as a superpower in the mid-1940s. It was this mantle that caused the United States, for whatever reason, to assume responsibility for the reconstruction of nations both in the west and in the east following the devastating effects of World War II. A point largely dismissed by those too young to remember. That virtually uncontested assumption of responsibility combined with the need for smaller countries to align themselves with something counter to the growing might of the Soviet Union propelled liberal American ideologies to the forefront of international thinking.

With the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90s the balance of power …show more content…
This seems strange though when one considers that India, Brazil, and South Africa are by definition stable, liberal democracies. Regardless of their politics however each member of BRICS has expressed dissatisfaction with the inflexibility of the current Bretton Woods institutions and various American economic and foreign policies. As a result it is easy to point to regional and cross-regional coalitions like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) as a counter to the American hegemon’s sometimes unsupported tactics, and perhaps the growing need to fill the vacuum created by the diminishment of American influence. A notion further supported by the fact that some economists believe China will soon outpace the United States in terms of GDP. This argument was seemingly given further credence when Jim O’Neill the former … of Goldman Sachs and the person who coined the term BRICs, said that, “world policymaking forums should be re-organized and in particular, the G7 should be adjusted to incorporate BRIC representatives.” (O’Neill) The question remains however, do such economic-based alliances necessitate