BRIC Offers an Alternative World Order

Thursday’s summit meeting of the BRIC countries was overshadowed by Iceland’s ash clouds and a devastating earthquake in the Chinese Himalayan province of Qinghai. But building on the first edition in 2009, the four leaders consolidated cooperation and agreed to proposals for forthcoming Group of 20 negotiations on a post-crisis economic architecture. As such, the BRICs reflect and reinforce the global shift of power away from the triad of the United States, Europe and Japan that has been dominant for the past 30 years.

Coined by Goldman Sachs in 2001, the idea of BRIC — Brazil, Russia, India and China — was dismissed at first as little more than a clever marketing tool for big, emerging economies that have little in common except perhaps a desire to counterbalance Western hegemony. Moreover, the global crisis seems to have exacerbated existing rifts and diverging interests between the four, undermining even the economic basis for closer links. With Russia’s economy lagging behind the rest, the BRICs appear to lack substance and cohesiveness.

At the same time, however, the group’s diversity is its greatest asset. The political, social, economic, cultural and religious differences are a microcosm of the whole world — a multipolar globe in miniature that is far more representative than the G7. Indeed, the BRIC group cuts across the old dichotomies of East-West and North-South. It has become a key component of the G20 and acts as a new bridge between developed and developing countries.

The opportunities for further economic integration are evident. Brazil and Russia will continue their leadership roles in developing and trading natural resources, while India and China will remain global leaders in manufacturing, services and technology. All four have bounced back from the recession and are sustaining the global recovery. On current trends, the group’s combined share in global gross domestic product should reach 60 percent by 2050. The countries’ growing economic weight has turned BRIC into a formidable bloc in the new multipolar world order.

That the BRIC forum is no mere talking shop is equally clear. At the summit, the leaders agreed on a common strategy for the forthcoming G20 meetings aimed at reforming the global financial system. They will jointly demand a “substantial shift in voting power in favor of emerging market economies and developing countries,” as the summit communique states. The group is also determined to rebalance and diversify the global economy, in which there will be a greater role for the state, regional trade and new currency arrangements less dependent on the dollar or the euro. While plans for an alternative world currency have been put on ice, the BRICs will increasingly use their own currencies in mutual trade and investment relations.

The BRICs also have some common views about the principles that should govern international relations — ones that diverge from those of the West. With their growing power and financial clout, they harbor geopolitical ambitions to change the very structure of global governance. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the host of the summit, said, “The BRICs have a vital contribution to make to the creation of a new, fairer, multipolar world order.”

They take a strong stand in support of state sovereignty that clashes with Western insistence on human rights and global market democracy. For the BRICs, a strong and sovereign state is necessary to guarantee domestic stability and defend society from exploitation at the hands of outside powers. They believe that every nation has a right to choose its own path toward development and modernization. Hence, the emphasis on state power in the economy.

From this perspective, a pluralistic world in which states respect each other’s sovereignty is more stable than one in which great powers impose their values on others — and destabilize domestic societies in the process. The BRICs were fiercely opposed to Kosovo’s independence, and they are all taking a strong position against expanding sanctions on Iran. Even Moscow’s support for “smart sanctions” is qualified by President Dmitry Medvedev’s conviction that sanctions alone are generally counterproductive.

The four BRIC countries are developing a powerful and compelling critique of the current world order that resonates with people outside of the West, a critique coupled with fresh ideas for a new system of global economic and political governance. Since 1945, Western countries have monopolized the role of global rule-making and reduced the rest to the position of rule-taking. The fallout from Iraq and the economic crisis have put an end to that.

Within the G20, the BRICs represent the only non-Western group currently capable of becoming global rule-makers. Last week’s summit is another important step on the road to an alternative world order.

Andrej Krickovic is a researcher at the energy and resources group at the University of California, Berkeley. Adrian Pabst is a lecturer in politics at the University of Kent. Both are part of an international project on BRIC 2025, a study of future scenarios for global politics from the perspective of the BRICs.