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ABSTRACT
Global change and the role of BRICS remain a problematic issue. Much depends on the perspective from which these two phenomena are analysed. In the Introduction to this collection of articles, we propose to view them from a decolonisation perspective. In this way, global change and the emergence of BRICS can be understood as a continuation of the decolonisation process. This is the context for the articles in this collection, which are also briefly introduced here.
Acknowledgements
This collection is one of the outcomes of an ongoing research project, “Regional Challenges to Multilateralism” (2017–forthcoming), coordinated by Dr Élise Féron, funded by the KONE Foundation and hosted by the Tampere Peace Research Institute at Tampere University in Tampere, Finland. The first versions of the articles were originally presented at the conference, “Regional Challenges to Multilateralism”, in Tampere, 13–14 September 2018, organized by the above-mentioned research project. I would like to thank all the participants for their contributions to the project, and especially for their part in this collection. I would also like to thank the anonymous referees for their work in improving the articles.
Notes
1. See, for instance, Zakaria, The Post-American World; Acharya, The End of American World Order; Agathangelou and Ling, Transforming World Politics; Kaplan, The Revenge of Geography; and Mahbubani, The Great Convergence; or Yan, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers; Khanna, The Future is Asian; Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan; Kupchan, No One’s World; and Stuenkel, Post-Western World. All these studies indicate that the post-World War II international order based on US hegemony is fading, but there is no consensus about what will replace it.
2. In their latest book, Amitav Acharya and Barry Buzan have demonstrated that IR theories and practical international relations are closely interconnected, and that IR theorising depends much on the interests and perspectives of the scholarly community, the majority of whose members still comes from the Western world: Acharya and Buzan, The Making of Global International Relations. In this respect, Kees van der Pijl goes even further and insists that IR theories in general serve US interests in international politics: van der Pijl, The Discipline of Western Supremacy.
3. See, for instance, de Graaff and van Apeldoorn, “US-China Relations and the Liberal World Order”; and Layne, “The US-Chinese Power Shift and the End of Pax Americana.”
4. Acharya and Buzan, The Making of Global International Relations.
5. Krishna, Globalization and Postcolonialism; and Acharya and Buzan, The Making of Global International Relations.
6. Mishra, From the Ruins of Empire.
7. Kiely, Rethinking Imperialism.
8. See, for instance, Mignolo, The Darker Side of Western Modernity; and Mignolo, “Epistemic Disobedience.”
9. Acharya and Buzan, The Making of Global International Relations; see also Acharya, Constructing Global Order.
10. See note 4 above.
11. At the time of writing, the UK is in the process of leaving the European Union (EU), and Poland and Hungary have shown that they couldn’t care less about the so-called common European values. In this situation, the homogeneity expected by integration theories, especially by functionalist and neo-functionalist theories, is just a dream.
12. See note 9 above.
13. See, for instance, Söderbaum, Rethinking Regionalism; and Telo, Regionalism in Hard Times. See also Käkönen and Juutinen, “BRICS as Paradox.”
14. See MacMillan, “Immanuel Kant and the Democratic Peace.”
15. MacMillan, “Immanuel Kant and the Democratic Peace,” 67.
16. See note 4 above.
17. Acharya, Constructing Global Order.
18. The point here is that BRICS present itself as a voice representing the Global South. However, it is problematic argument as long as more than one billion Muslim world does not have a representation in the BRICS community.
19. From the BRICS perspective, both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have given too little and too late, as is indicated in several of the BRICS summit documents.
20. See, for instance, Chen, Asia as Method; Voskressenski, Non-Western Theories of International Relations; Shahi, Kautilya and Non-Western IR Theory; Mitra and Liebig, Kautilya’s Arthasastra, Narlikar and Narlikar, Bargaining with a Rising India; Vivekanandan, Interrogating International Relations; Datta-Ray, The Making of Indian Diplomacy; and Yan, Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers. In each of those studies, the authors bring in their analysis and theorise either the historical experiences of the non-European parts of the world or non-European classical theoretical perspectives.
21. Barbieri, “Regionalism, Globalism and Complexity.”
22. Lagutina, “BRICS in a World of Regions.”
23. Formici, “The Role of the BRICS Group in the International Arena.”
24. Pandit, “Delivering ‘Public Goods’ and the Changing Financial Architecture.”
25. Juutinen, “Emerging Powers and New Global Politics?”
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Jyrki Käkönen
Jyrki Käkönen is Emeritus Professor and a senior scholar in KONE funded research project on ‘Regional Challenges to Multilateralism’. He was Professor in International Relations and European Studies at the Institute of Political Science and Governance in Tallinn University (2007–2015), Jean Monnet Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations in the University of Tampere (1998–2007). He was the director of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Tampere (2002–2007) and the director of Tampere Peace Research Institute (1988–1998). His current research interest is in the changing international order and how the transition of the system challenges Eurocentric IR approaches. Among his recent publications are ‘Interpreting the Transforming World: Perspective from Peace Research’, New Global Studies 5(3) 2011; co-authored book, ’Euro-Asia’ at the Crossroads. Geopolitics, Identities and Dialogues together with Sanjay Chaturvedi and Anita Sengupta 2011; BRICS as a New Power in International Relations. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations, 6 (2) 2014; BRICS as a new constellation in international relations. In Kaarle Nordenstreng and Daya Thussu (eds.), Mapping BRICS Media 2015; together with Marko Juutinen Battle for Globalisations? BRICS and US Mega-Regional Trade Agreements in a Changing World Order. Observer Research Foundation Monograph 2016; Revisiting Regionalism and the Contemporary World Order. Perspectives from the BRICS and beyond together with Elise Féron and Gabriel Rached 2019.