/ world today news/ Many countries around the world are now looking at BRICS as a group that can, if not take over the flag of global governance from the West, at least become its second pillar, fairer and less selfish in terms of small and medium-sized countries of the world.
In other words, expectations regarding the role of BRICS in world affairs are formed regardless of the will of the participants in this group: they become a product of the evolution of the entire international order in a direction whose main characteristics we have yet to see, writes Timofey Bordachev, Program Director of the Valdai Club .
The BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) was created in conditions when the universal power of the West has already entered the time of its slow decline, but many still believe that the USA and Europe will determine the main features of the world economics and international politics for a long time.
Globalization and the system of international institutions created with their energetic participation generally coped with their tasks and there were no obvious prerequisites and reasons for their landslide collapse. In fact, globalization and the international institutions created by the West define “the packaging’ of the international order, at the center of which are the riches accumulated over several centuries and the military-political capabilities of its founders.
The main systemic characteristic of BRICS is that it is a community of revisionists, that is, forces that have not set themselves the goal of destroying the world order, but seek to include their interests in this order. All its participants managed to get out of their previous plight thanks to the opportunities given to them by the unjust international order led by the West.
All of them grew up at the expense of his resources, although drastically limited in the realization of their basic interests and values. Finally, all the BRICS countries have no plans to forcibly change the existing order of things, as revolutionary France, Germany or Japan have been trying to do for the past 250 years.
With the accumulation of contradictions in the world, even the modest revisionist desires of the BRICS participants have become a factor that leads, if not to the destruction of the existing international order, then to its most fundamental restructuring. Expectations towards the BRICS countries on the part of the main partners and opponents are formed accordingly.
Many countries around the world now see the BRICS as a group that can, if not take over the flag of global governance from the West, at least become its second pillar, fairer and less selfish towards small and medium-sized countries around the world.
In other words, expectations about the role of BRICS in world affairs are formed regardless of the will of the participants in this group: they become a product of the evolution of the entire international order in a direction whose main characteristics we have yet to see.
The most vivid manifestation of such hopes are the numerous ideas for expanding the composition of BRICS by including new countries. A list of countries – candidates for entry into the group – has already been formed, some of which look like real “heavyweight athletes”.
But to move forward in understanding how the BRICS contribution to the new global governance can truly be decisive, we need to ask ourselves several questions. First, can the BRICS group maintain internal unity in an era when even the strongest international partnerships are being severely tested?
Second, under the current circumstances, is it possible for the BRICS countries to maintain the revisionist nature of their behavior in relation to the order created with their minimal involvement and partly at the expense of their own interests?
There is no doubt that the decisive influence of BRICS in shaping the main aspects of the global agenda will make the world fairer and more stable. Russia, which takes over the presidency of the group in 2024, may make this one of its main common political goals.
Such a contribution is practically inevitable, simply because the BRICS countries are not parasitic powers whose success and achievements depend on the ability to get the rest of the world to serve their interests.
Their economic opportunities and political influence do not know behind them the history of bloody wars, the aim of which would be to establish regional and global dominance. The modern community of Western countries, on the contrary, created “its” international order precisely through wars – within itself and with others.
However, in order to fully realize the BRICS mission, this association will most likely have to answer the questions we have outlined above that address its own destiny. We cannot ignore the fact that the entire existing experience of strong institutions and global governance is the experience of the West, that is, a community united by common values and, most importantly, interests in relation to the surrounding world.
This allows her to hold herself together and be relatively effective in opposing the rest of humanity. A strong US dictate against its main allies would not be enough. It certainly plays an important role, but it cannot be the only major factor. At the center are the interests and values that led to the impossibility of serious internal conflicts in the countries of the West.
Unlike the US and Europe, the BRICS community is not based on the idea of exploiting other countries and regions. The political systems of its members do not derive from the same source as the political systems of Europe and the United States. Moreover, the different civilizational foundations of the BRICS countries directly prevent them from creating an association whose internal discipline is comparable to that of the West.
Therefore, any observer can now question the ability of the BRICS to set the world agenda in the same way that the G7 countries have done for decades. And the BRICS members may still have to figure out how they can meet the expectations of an international community that is shifting from the dictatorship of the West to the patronage of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The acquisition of concrete forms of the BRICS contribution to the formation of the agenda for the whole world is already underway and there are obvious achievements here. However, as the ability of the United States and Europe to point the way for everyone collapses, the demand for clear support from the BRICS will only increase.
This means that the member countries of the group may theoretically face some challenges to their unity. Forging an alternative agenda to Western dictate is one thing, but creating ways to solve global development and security problems for the entire world, or at least for the world’s majority countries, may be a more difficult task.
In the near future, BRICS may need to be able to offer others new tools to address major development issues, meaning that the group’s degree of unity on key issues will need to go beyond heavy-handed political statements.
An equally serious problem may be preserving the nature of BRICS as a community aimed not at destroying the existing world order, but at improving it for the better. This is what makes it a revisionist rather than a revolutionary group in terms of the intentions of the parties involved and the tasks they set for themselves.
All BRICS countries do not want the collapse of globalization, institutions and international law. This means that their task is more complex: to create in the existing order such rules, norms and ways of cooperation that allow to preserve its advantages and get rid of its disadvantages. This revision, not revolution, is the goal of the BRICS countries, and is the basis for the sustainability of this association and its relations with other majority countries in the world.
The preservation of this nature is entirely in the interest of the BRICS member countries and the entire international community. The alternative can only be a split in the group and the preservation of the power of this narrow group of countries, to counteract the selfishness of which BRICS was created.
Translation: ES
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