2. A contested invention

‘A contested invention’ outlines the development of the BRICS group. The building blocks were in place for a stand-alone forum prior to 2009, but the catalytic moment came with the global financial crisis. As participants in the initial G20 summit in Washington DC in November 2008, all the BRIC leaders became willing members of a recalibrated global hierarchy. However, the decision by the BRIC countries to establish a diplomatic club of their own can be tied both to their rising economic and political weight and to a shared sense that their elevated status was not adequately reflected in existing international institutions dominated by developed states.

7. The staying power of the BRICS

The BRICS group can be interpreted in several ways: as a cluster of big emerging economies with dramatic growth; as a diplomatic club of reform-minded members seeking a new and fairer deal in the world’s institutional architecture; or as a group with the disruptive potential to cause a rupture in the global system. ‘The staying power of the BRICS’ highlights the need for a broad overview given the absence of a single dominant identity. The continued existence of the BRICS suggests that both its symbolic and operational role in the diffusion of authority in the 21st-century global system should not be underestimated.

5. Building the New Development Bank

The New Development Bank (NDB)—alternatively called the BRICS Development Bank—represents the most significant institutional innovation to emerge from the BRICS summit process. ‘Building the New Development Bank’ outlines how BRICS was able to successfully establish the NDB in 2014, as well as establish the Contingent Reserve Agreement (CRA), amounting to $100 billion, as a buttress against any future financial crisis, despite the broad differences in strategic interests and economic capabilities among the BRICS members and the considerable scepticism about the viability of the project. What will be the impact of the NDB on global governance? Will the BRICS countries be able to operate the NDB effectively?

3. A historical departure

‘A historical departure’ describes how the BRICS, as both a diplomatic project and an international institution, is different from past groups. The catalyst for the BRICS members’ new type of engagement—mainly via the G summits and the outreach process—was the growing economic and political weight of the BRICS countries, coupled with the apparent decline of the United States and European countries in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. This raised questions about the appropriateness of existing rules and governance structures. In order for the global system to work, the BRICS needed to be accorded a greater role in the core decision-making bodies.

1. Framing the BRICS

‘Framing the BRICS’ explains that the BRICS can be viewed according to three different frameworks. First, as initially conceived by Goldman Sachs, the BRIC describes a set of big and fast-growing economies. Second, the BRICS has developed into an informal diplomatic club with a dual personality as both an insider and outsider in the global system. Third, the BRICS can be viewed as representing a geostrategic challenge and possible transformative threat to the existing international order dominated by the United States and the advanced industrial economies of the West. Is there potential for the BRICS to act as a rival to the G7 and a destabilizing force in the Western-centred global system?

4. Hanging together

Through their communiqués and other outputs, the BRICS countries have worked hard to present themselves as a cohesive group. This effort, however, belies sharp differences in the political, economic, and policy approaches of the member states. ‘Hanging together’ explains how the BRICS has proved sustainable despite the group being riddled with rivalries over borders, resources, and status; divided on the issue of reforming the United Nations Security Council; and not always acting as a concerted bloc within other informal institutional settings, even in the context of the G20, where there is not always adherence to traditional North–South alliances. It also considers why South Africa was brought into the BRICS.

6. BRICS as the recognition of states, not societies

The BRICS, at its core, is a state-centric project. The emphasis is on the assertion—and granting—of a heightened degree of recognition within the global system. The motivations combine the symbolic elements, such as the aspirations for an enhanced status, and the instrumental, with respect to gaining additional policy leverage in global affairs. ‘BRICS as the recognition of states, not societies’ explains how societal issues are now being discussed at BRICS summits, but despite the formation of think tanks and trade unions, clear tensions persist between official BRICS cooperation at the governmental level and non-state actors.