The Biggest Threat to the World Order?
BRICS is potentially one of the greatest rising threats to the Liberal economic order. A global future with amoralist tyrants like Putin and Xi at its helm is a detriment to world peace.
BRICS is an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. There are some more important things to know about it though, as its status as a mere acronym is rapidly changing.
Now, BRICS is becoming more and more of a formalized partnership between the BRICS nations. BRICS was originally created to classify the leading emerging world economies, as the members have a combined population of 3.2 billion, or approximately 42% of the world population, and their combined GDP is about $27 trillion or 26% of the gross world product.
These countries also share economies that are projected to grow heavily by 2050 and with them uniting in an increasingly formal capacity — working to unseat the Dollar for trade — the power they have is immense.
The takeaway? BRICS is populous and rich, and has a lot of potential to destroy the global order and create a new leviathan in its stead.
One of the reasons BRICS is so relevant right now is because Russia recently announced that there were 12 more countries interested in joining the group (BRICS+). Again, this is another major step in the construction of a global economic infrastructure that seeks to exclude the US (or broadly “the West”) and her allies.
How exactly do they plan to do this though? Well, BRICS — to my understanding — is developing its own Reserve Currency to be use exclusively by its own members. Reserve currencies are monetary assets held in massive quantities so that banks and nations can conduct deals and build partnerships. Additionally, by unseating the Dollar, BRICS nations can hold wealth that is not as easily subject to political or economic sanctions. From a foreign policy perspective, this makes the pursuit of goals like Russia’s war in Ukraine — as an example — more feasible and more likely to occur elsewhere (Taiwan *cough cough*).
As an organization that is growing more and more enticing to work with, BRICS also becomes more powerful and exclusive. It is a short term bid to construct a multipolar playing field, but a long term bid towards economic — and therefor political and military — hegemony.
The war in Ukraine and the perpetual promise that Taiwan will be seized by force are reminders of that. A Russo-Chinese world order is certainly not one I want influencing — or coercing — my country.
NOTE: November 20,2022
A reader pointed out that BRICS is not a multinational organization, but rather a Western acronym.
It was my intent to make this clear in my article, but in case I did not my response to that reader is posted below:
“Yes. As stated in the article, BRICS was originally made to categorize the economies of the “BRICS” nations. The engagement between those countries, in an attempt to create a multipolar world order, has become more and more of a formal pact in everything but name.
Thanks for the opportunity to clarify this. I’ll edit the article!”
__________
Thank you for reading.
If you enjoyed this article, consider subscribing to The Countermeasure here on Medium. Also, follow me on Twitter @thecmeasure.
