The staying power of the BRICS

With a mutually reinforcing sense of historical grievances, the BRICS take an instrumental approach to global governance on behalf of all developing countries. They profess a shared vision of inclusive global growth, proclaim the need for a rules-based, stable, and predictable world order that respects the diversity of political systems and stages of development, and argue that legacy global political imbalances need to be readjusted to new global economic imbalances with increased voice and vote on issues of global finance. Hamstrung by serious differences of values and interests, riven with rivalries over borders, resources, and status, each member retains deep ties with pivotal Northern countries. All face serious political, social, and economic problems. Absent tighter normative and ideational identity among members, domestic priorities trump club solidarity. Still, they have put down markers that they intend to use demographic weight, economic heft and diplomatic clout to reconfigure both formal multilateral machinery and informal groupings.