A new age of international relations is dawning.
With the West accounting for a declining share of global gross domestic product and the world becoming increasingly multipolar, countries are jostling to establish their positions in the emerging order. This includes both the emerging economies — represented by the recently expanded BRICS grouping — that seek a leading role in writing the rules of the new order and the smaller countries attempting to cultivate relationships that can safeguard their interests.
With the BRICS, what began as an asset class has become a symbol of the yearning for a more broadly representative global order, a hedge against Western-led institutions and a means of navigating growing geopolitical uncertainty. All this has proved highly attractive. Earlier this year, the BRICS expanded from five countries (Brazil, China, India, Russia and South Africa) to nine (adding Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates). And almost three dozen more countries — including NATO member Turkey, close U.S. partners Thailand and Mexico and Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim country — have applied to join.
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