BRICS: economic collaboration amidst geopolitical ambitions and limitations

The Norwegian Institute of International has the pleasure of inviting you to the seminar: BRICS: economic collaboration amidst geopolitical ambitions and limitations Professor Ramesh Thakur , Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament, the Crawford School, Australian National University BRICS is among the confetti of political, security and economic ‘G’ groups that dot the contemporary international landscape. Leaders of the five BRICS countries held their sixth annual meeting in July in Brazil. The major deliverable from the summit was economic in form and content but the group’s primary motivation, significance and built-in limitations are mainly geopolitical. BRICS serves as the key tag of the major emerging markets whose economic growth will outstrip and anchor the rest of the world. The five countries, although not homogeneous in interests, values and policy preferences, do have a common interest in checking US/Western power and influence through collaboration with non-Western powers. Common grievance against perceived US high-handedness as the glue binding them has been reinforced in recent times with double-standards-based disputes and controversies involving Brazil, China, India and Russia. They vary considerably but all are ahead of other developing countries on population, military power, economic weight, geopolitical clout, and global reach and engagement. They are unrepresentative of the typical developing country in terms of interest, capacity and resources, but can represent the interests and goals of developing countries as a group on those issues where the North–South division is salient, like health care, pharmaceuticals, and intellectual property rights. It remains unclear whether the BRICS can morph from a countervailing economic grouping to a powerful political alternative. Professor Ramesh Thakur is Director of the Centre for Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament (CNND) in the Crawford School, Australian National University and Adjunct Professor in the Institute of Ethics, Governance and Law at Griffith University. He was Vice Rector and Senior Vice Rector of the United Nations University (and Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations) from 1998–2007. [More]