https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6240-7488
![Sample our Global Development journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5929/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Global-Development.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
This article is devoted to the analysis of the role of BRICS in forming the world order of regions. Several researchers have observed that the liberal world order is in crisis, and they describe the emerging new world order as a ‘regiopolar world order’. Today BRICS has become an alliance of co-thinkers who are trying to reform the current liberal world order. However, in terms of the classical theory of international relations, BRICS is regarded as a hopeless and unpromising structure. It has been actively criticized by Western experts as an ineffective, informal platform which has not been able to make any changes in the world order. The idea of a non-Western world order based on pluralism and polycentricism could be realized based on the concept of the ‘regional world’. BRICS as a case of multiple and diverse but cross-cutting cooperation could become a ‘bridge’ between the global and regional worlds: each BRICS member is also the leading economy in its region and can actively develop regional integration. Hence this paper suggests that BRICS could become the basis for a new world order – a polycentric world order in which different types and forms of regions are the key elements.
Abbreviations
| APEC | = | Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation |
| ASEAN | = | Association of Southeast Asian Nations |
| AU | = | African Union |
| BEAC | = | Barents Euro-Arctic Cooperation |
| BRICS | = | Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa |
| CIS | = | Commonwealth of Independent States |
| CSTO | = | Collective Security Treaty Organization |
| EAEU | = | Eurasian Economic Union |
| EU | = | European Union |
| GDP | = | Gross domestic product |
| IBSA | = | India, Brazil, South Africa |
| IMF | = | International Monetary Fund |
| MERCOSUR | = | Southern Common Market |
| NDB | = | New Development Bank |
| NEAR | = | Association of North East Asia Regional Governments |
| RCEP | = | Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership |
| RIC | = | Russia-India-China triangle |
| SAARC | = | South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation |
| SADC | = | South African Development Community |
| SCO | = | Shanghai Cooperation Organization |
| TPP | = | Trans-Pacific Partnership |
| USSR | = | Union of Soviet Socialist Republics |
| UN | = | United Nations |
| US | = | United States |
| USMCA | = | United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement |
Notes
1. Wynne and Kersting. “Trade, Globalization and the Financial Crisis,” 1.
2. Shirokov, “Regionalizatsiya.”
3. Soderbaum, Rethinking Regionalism, 34.
4. Acharya, The End of American World Order, 101.
5. Fioramonti, Conclusion – Building Regions from Below.
6. Leonova, “Global’naya regionalizatsiya kak fenomen razvitiya globalnogo mira.”
7. See note 4 above, 100.
8. Soderbaum, Early, Old, New and Comparative Regionalism, 21.
9. Naik, “Rising BRICS.”
10. Mikhaylenko, “Alternativniy regionalism BRIKS.”
11. Lagutina, Mir regionov v structure mirovoy politicheskoy sistemy 21 veka.
12. BRICs and Beyond.
13. Ibid.
14. Abashidze and Solntsev, “BRIKS – mezhdunarodnayakvaziorganizatsiya?” 10.
15. Toloraya, Russia hopes BRICS can create a polycentric world.
16. Telo, Regionalism in Hard Times; Meena, “Regions, Regionalization and BRICS”; Naik, “Rising BRICS”; Mikhaylenko, “Alternativniy regionalism.”
17. See note 9 above.
18. Zanini, “BRICS under new Brazilian President.”
19. Ilyin and Leonova, “International Approaches to the Analysis of the Phenomena of BRICS Transregionalism.”
20. Ikenberry, “The end of liberal international order?” 7.
21. Troyjo, “Kratkaya istoriya deglobalizatsii.”
22. See note 20 above, 7.
23. “China’s Economy in Three Parts.”
24. Binder and Kononov, “Valutnaya politika KNR.”
25. Papa, BRICS’ Pursuit of Multipolarity, 2.
26. Joint Communiqué Meeting.
27. Joint Statement of the BRIC Countries’ Leaders.
28. 2nd BRIC Summit of Heads of State and Government.
29. Sanya Declaration of the BRICS Leaders Meeting.
30. Fourth BRICS Summit: Delhi Declaration.
31. BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Development, Integration and Industrialisation.
32. The 6th BRICS Summit: Fortaleza Declaration.
33. VII BRICS Summit: 2015 Ufa Declaration.
34. 8th BRICS Summit: Goa Declaration.
35. BRICS Leaders Xiamen Declaration Xiamen.
36. 10th BRICS Summit Johannesburg Declaration.
37. Langenhove, The EU as a Global Actor.
38. Weiss and Daws, The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations.
39. Acharya, Regional Worlds in a Post-Hegemonic Era, 7.
40. Leonova, “Global’naya regionalizatsiya kak fenomen razvitiya globalnogo mira”; Lagutina, “A World of Global Regions?” 49–63.
41. Katzenstein, A World of Regions, i.
42. Shchebarova, “Evolutsiya globalizatsii cherez liberalizatsiyu regional’nikh ekonomicheskikh setey,” 2.
43. Achary, The End of American World Order, 16.
44. See note 3 above, 34.
45. Acharya, “Comparative Regionalism,” 10.
46. Acharya, The End of the American World Order; Buzan, “The Inaugural Kenneth N. Waltz Annual Lecture.”
47. Naik, “Rising BRICS,” 103.
48. Sergunin and Gao, “BRICS as the Subject of Study of International Relations Theory.”
49. Lisovolik, “BRIKS-plus,” 3.
50. See note 33 above.
51. Lisovolik, Pereosmyslenie BRIKS; Shilyan, BRIKS+.
52. Lisovolik, Pereosmyslenie BRIKS.
53. See note 10 above.
54. Movchan, Lozhnayanadezhda; Nye, BRICS without Mortar; Frankel, Dipping BRICS?
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Maria L. Lagutina
Maria L. Lagutina is Associate Professor, World Politics Department at St. Petersburg State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science (2006, St. Petersburg State University, the Russian Federation) and Doctoral Degree in Political Science (2017, St. Petersburg State University, the Russian Federation). Her current research interests are oriented towards BRICS as a grouping, comparative regionalism, global governance, regional governance and Eurasian integration. She is a member of the International Studies Association. Dr. Maria Lagutina is the author of many publications on world politics, regional integration, global governance and Eurasian integration, in Russian and English. Her latest works were published in the USA: The Russian Project of Eurasian Integration. Geopolitical Prospects. (Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2016); Russia and the World: Understanding International Relations (Lexington Books, Rowman and Littlefield, 2017); The Eurasian Economic Union in the Context of Transformation of the International Trade System (IGI Global, 2018). In 2016 she was visiting professor at Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada).