Opinion: BRICS group adds another layer (2024)

By: Kyle HiebertPosted: 2:01 AM CDT Wednesday, Jun. 26, 2024

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Opinion

Malaysia’s prime minister recently announced his country will be the latest to join BRICS. The bloc — named after its original members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — bills itself as budding challenger to the so-called liberal democratic order. Venezuela also expects to join the group before the year ends.

Indeed, what was a loose alliance of emerging economies when it was founded 15 years ago is now gaining shape and traction. It is drawing interest from a wide variety of countries. Yet all aspiring members have one thing in common: fatigue with Western hegemony.

Malaysia’s ascension will enhance a group that just added Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) in January. Before the group’s summit last August in South Africa, nearly two dozen countries submitted formal applications to join.

Even without Malaysia, the bloc’s expanded form — casually called BRICS+ — already exceeds the G7 club of rich like-minded democracies on several key metrics. It collectively accounts for at least 37 per cent of global GDP. Its members also produce 44 per cent of the world’s oil and are home to four in 10 people on Earth.

A top priority of BRICS is to counteract the West’s control of multilateral institutions for international development. Countries in the Global South are allocated far less voting power than are wealthy democracies, at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The bloc is also pushing to make the global economy less dependent on the U.S. dollar.

The greenback is used in 88 per cent of international trade. And resentment over its dominance is intensifying. First, because Western countries have shown hubris over their ability to banish Russia from the global financial system and seize its assets for political reasons. Meanwhile, the raising of interest rates in America to fight domestic inflation always portends negative fallout for low-income countries. In particular, by stoking the price of energy and food imports and hiking the cost of servicing dollar-dominated debt.

Wars in Ukraine and Gaza have also raised the profile of BRICS by amplifying its calls to dismantle Western exceptionalism.

Western officials, led by U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, have routinely framed the European conflict as a globally decisive clash between autocracy and democracy. But developing countries view this argument as hollow, pointing to the seeming double standards apparent in the West’s instinctive backing of Israel’s deadly bombardment of Gaza since last October.

Indeed, nations throughout the Global South have vexed Western governments by generally rejecting calls by liberal democracies to pick a side in renewed great power rivalry. That’s because doing so offers developing countries little immediate benefit but invites plenty of risk.

Multiple votes at the United Nations in 2022 showed the majority of nations worldwide condemned Moscow’s unprovoked decision to attack Ukraine. Yet governments representing two-thirds of the world’s population, mostly in low- and middle-income countries, have declined to apply sanctions against Russia due to valid economic concerns.

However, the potential for BRICS to effect lasting change could be undermined by its lack of cohesiveness. Its roster of members is riven by contradictions and conflicts — a dynamic that will multiply as the group expands further. Finding consensus will be an elusive task.

For instance, Beijing clearly views China as the group’s de facto chair. It also has the most to gain from de-dollarization. Yet even Chinese businesses are refusing to switch from dollars to yuan.

India’s economy is deeply vulnerable to climate change. The country has also subtly aligned itself with the West in its intense power competition with China in the Indo-Pacific. South Africa is grappling with profound internal problems.

Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia and Iran are bitter Middle Eastern adversaries. Tensions will be compounded if Riyadh eventually normalizes relations with Israel as part of a U.S. brokered agreement to recognize Palestinian statehood. Egypt is threatened by Ethiopia filling a massive new hydroelectric dam upstream on the Nile River — virtually the sole source of drinking water for Egypt’s 107 million people. Egyptian hackers have already targeted the dam with cyberattacks.

The U.A.E. is at odds with Saudi Arabia for how to deal with Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Emiratis are also sponsoring a rogue warlord in Sudan’s civil war, which risks destabilizing fellow BRICS member Ethiopia.

Given all of this, it remains to be seen whether the global influence of BRICS ultimately evolves to rival that of the G7. What is clear is that, in a more competitive and multipolar world, developing nations are feeling empowered to pursue their interests on their own terms.

Kyle Hiebert is a Winnipeg-based researcher and political risk analyst, and former deputy editor of the Africa Conflict Monitor..

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