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| BRICS Nations |
By Brad Glosserman, Peter Walkenhorst & Ting Xu
The sinews of the global order are creaking. The most recent sign of age and obsolescence is the BRICS summit that just convened in New Delhi. The BRICS as a group – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – won’t reorder global politics; as much divides them as unites them. But their determination to articulate the grievances of emerging states shouldn’t be ignored.
Take, for example, their call for a new development bank, one that would complement the World Bank, but with greater emphasis on the needs and priorities of developing economies as those nations themselves see them. The demand for a new international institution is the outgrowth of growing frustration with existing financial institutions and the “capture” of their leadership by the United States and Europe (which reserve the top position in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, respectively).
The fight over who would succeed Robert Zoellick as head of the World Bank is the latest round in a larger debate that now encompasses the bank, the IMF, the U.N. Security Council, and bubbles up in every discussion of how global institutions are and should be run. These complaints aren’t sour grapes, but reflect a larger shift in how the world works.
Read the full story at The Diplomat