The BRICS Order

This book examines the direction of the BRICS association. Beginning with historical analyses of the broader Global South and the fundamental composition of the BRICS countries and then moving on to present trends, The BRICS Order evaluates the variables that will influence the association’s future. While the BRICS as a forum emerged as a result of the visible fragmentation of the post-1945 world order, it itself remains dogged by issues emanating from internal divergences among member states and from external factors.  The contributors interrogate the extent to which this formation of “emerging economies” is indicative of a challenge to the West, or in fact a complimentary relation. Integral to these studies – which encompass examinations of such diverse areas as governance systems, issues in bilateral relations, security threats, multilateral institution building, the transnational creation and dissemination of knowledge, and technological innovation – are patterns ofconvergence and divergence which render the countries not a formal alliance, but as signifiers of a multilateral future in which the West is itself to become more heterogeneous and thus become occasionally complemented depending on the vacillating consensus within the BRICS association and on the interests of the BRICS countries at different points in time.

Introduction.- Autochthonous routes to democracy: assessing the BRICS polities.- BRICS, Brazil and Africa: economic potential and challenges.- Ambiguity or strategic play? distilling india’s BRICS relations.- China, economic partnership, common development and Brics.- Manna from heaven-South Africa’s search for relevance in the BRICS constellation.- China-India strains: whither the BRICS?.- BRICS-Africa cooperation in perspective: the case of Kenya.- African perceptions of the BRICS: optimistic, pessimistic or pragmatic?.- BRICS and beyond: some principles of educational collaboration in the global south.- The global south and industry 4.0: historical development and future trajectories.- BRICS and industry 4.0.- The BRICS new development bank.- Conclusion.