Mimesis and status-seeking in the global order. BRICS summit diplomacy and performative practices

ABSTRACT

An increasing strand of literature has been studying the dynamics of contestation of the liberal order. Holding that order emergence commences with rhetoric and narratives, this article takes stock of the BRICS summit diplomacy and contestation practices. It pursues a two-level argument. Applying BRICS as a historical case study, the article first reveals how BRICS engages in mimetic performances, re-producing parts of the global order, while simultaneously seeking a re-configuration of the current international system. Second, our analysis shows that through thin and aspiring thick recognition, BRICS countries move toward an enhanced role and status, striving for a better position in the global order. Empirically, to unpack our argument, we analyze BRICS summit diplomacy and rhetoric by unfolding the outcome declarations in the period 2009–2020, as well as BRICS performative practices.

KEYWORDS:

• BRICS
• mimesis
• order
• summit diplomacy
• status-seeking
• recognition

Acknowledgments

Earlier versions of this article were presented at the Centre for Advanced Security Theory Research Seminar and at the Centre for Military Studies Research Workshop, University of Copenhagen. The authors would like to thank to Maria Mälksoo, Katja Lindskov Jacobsen, Christian Bueger, Jonathan Austin Luke, Anders Wivel, Stig Toft Madsen, Henrik Breitenbauch and the two anonymous reviewers for tremendous comments that helped improved the article. The authors would also like to thank to Ursula Schröder and Ulrich Kühn, as well as all colleagues at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, for the substantial support with progressing with this Special Issue.

Disclosure statement

The author(s) do not have any conflict of interest to report.

Notes

1. The first BRICS summit was in 2009 in Yekaterinburg and resulted in a joint statement. Since then, BRICS Summits took place every year and resulted in a joint statement, declaration, and/or action plan. The nature of the issued summit documents has increased in complexity and quantity, ranging from 2 pages in the Yekaterinburg Summit statement to 18 pages in the 2020 Moscow BRICS Summit declaration. A database of BRICS official documents and meetings can be found here: http://www.brics.utoronto.ca/docs/index.html.

2. On the technicalities of recipient–donor relations and different policies of conditionality, as well as on further challenges in South-South cooperation see for example Kamwengo (2017) and Kevin and Gills (2016).

3. “We strongly support reforms underway in the affected countries and welcome the progress so far achieved. With full implementation of programmes agreed with the IMF we are confident that stability can be restored” (G8, 1998).

4. In Plato’s model, noesis constitutes the highest level of cognition, in the sense of Erkenntnis, see Malcolm (1962, 38) and Morrison (1977).

5. China (Xi Jinping), India (Narendra Modi), South Africa (Jacob Zuma), Brazil (Jair Bolsonaro) and Russia (Vladimir Putin) have all seen considerable power consolidation in the hands of an individual leader in the recent past.

6. For this analogy, I am immensely indebted to Stig Toft Madsen, University of Copenhagen.

7. The outcome documents for the summits in 2012, 2015, and 2016 also entail the action plans along the summit declaration or joint statement.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Cornelia Baciu

Dr Cornelia Baciu is Researcher at the Department of Political Science, Centre for Military Studies, University of Copenhagen. She specialized in international security organizations and conflict research. Previously, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Peace Research at the University of Hamburg and Johns Hopkins University in Washington DC. Cornelia Baciu obtained degrees from Dublin City University, University of Konstanz, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi. She was visiting fellow at the University of Southern Denmark, Jawaharlal Nehru University, and the United Nations Office in Vienna. Her work was published in the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, Comparative Strategy, and other peer-reviewed journals. Dr Baciu published two books: Civil-Military Relations and Global Security Governance. Strategy, Hybrid Orders and the Case of Pakistan (2021) and Peace, Security and Defence Cooperation in Post-Brexit Europe. Risks and Opportunities (co-edited with John Doyle, 2019).

Klaus Kotzé

Klaus Kotzé is an Honorary Research Affiliate at the Centre for Rhetoric Studies, University of Cape Town. He has completed his PhD (BRICS: Strategies of Persuasion) and an ensuing post doctorate at the same Centre where he employed rhetorical analyses to explore BRICS’ official documentation, the South African Constitutional project, South African president Cyril Ramaphosa’s communication strategies, and the rhetorical responses to COVID-19. Dr Kotzé’s research interests include global power relations; national and international strategy (strategies of persuasion); and emerging and extra-Western forms of international power and order. He regularly writes for South African newspapers and is featured on international political and strategic platforms, including Geopolitical Monitor, Global Risk Insights, and Modern Diplomacy. Dr Kotzé is currently working on projects with several organizations, including with the King’s College London: Centre for Strategic Communications, and the Inclusive Society Institute (Cape Town).