In the early 21st century, five rising powers (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) formed an exclusive international club, the BRICS. Although not extreme revisionists, the BRICS recognize an ongoing global power shift and contest the West's pretensions to permanent stewardship of the existing economic order. Together they exercise collective financial and monetary statecraft to achieve larger foreign policy goals. The BRICS share common resentments-of
U.S. dominance of the global financial system, of playing junior roles in economic governance, and of serving as frequent targets of financial sanctions. They also share common objectives, such as obtaining greater financial autonomy and influence within the Bretton Woods institutions. Their financial statecraft ranges from pressure for the internal reform of international organizations and markets to operating outside the system through the creation of both new multilateral institutions and opportunity structures in international financial markets. To the surprise of many observers, the joint actions of the BRICS have been largely successful. The BRICS' future depends not only on their bargaining power and ability to successfully adjust to market shifts, but also on their ability to overcome domestic impediments to sustainable economic growth, which is the ultimate basis for their international influence.
1. Introduction: The BRICS as a Club BRICS in the Aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis Strategic Incentives in Unipolarity and Common Aversions The BRICS and the Global Governance System Formal Institutions and Informal Powers: The Emergence of Clubs The BRICS as a Club Clubs with Power Asymmetries and Dominant Powers with Outside Options Plan of the Book 2. Global Power Shift: The BRICS, Building Capabilities for Influence Conceptualizing Power Measuring the Shift in Economic Capabilities A New, Multipolar World? The Global Financial and Monetary Capabilities of the BRICS Redback Rising Conclusions 3. BRICS Collective Financial Statecraft: Four Cases Defining Collective Financial Statecraft Four Categories of Collective Financial Statecraft Inside Reforms: The BRICS Quest for Greater Influence Within the IMF and World Bank (Case 1) Inside Reforms: Resist Manipulation of Financial Market Power for U.S./Western Political Aims (Case 2) Outside Options: Create Parallel Financial Institutions Controlled by the BRICS (Case 3) Outside Options: Diminish Dollar Dominance and Build the Financial Market Power of the RMB (Case 4) Future Directions and Cooperative Opportunities Not Taken Conclusion: Mostly Successful BRICS Collective Financial Statecraft 4. Motives for BRICS Collaboration: Views from the Five Capitals Six Propositions The View from Beijing: In Search of Legitimacy and Unthreatening Leadership The View from Moscow: Russia's Struggle for Autonomy and International Influence The View from New Delhi: Amplifying Voice and Anticipating Multipolarity The View from Brasília: Enhancing Status and Inviting Investment The View from Pretoria: Support for Growth and Regional Leadership Conclusions: Explaining BRICS Collaboration 5. Conclusion: Whither the BRICS? BRICS and World Order: Too Much Pessimism Is Unwarranted Growth: The Essential Need to Return to the BRICS' Roots The Tension Between Formal and Informal Rules Summing up: The BRICS, Collective Financial Statecraft, and the Multipolar Future Notes Index
Cynthia Roberts is Associate Professor of Political Science at Hunter College, City University of New York, a Senior Associate at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, and Adjunct Associate Professor of International Affairs at Columbia University. Leslie Elliott Armijo is term Associate Professor in the School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada. Saori N. Katada is Associate Professor in the School of International Relations, University of Southern California.
Reviews for The BRICS and Collective Financial Statecraft
Here is a book that sceptics of the BRICS must read. Through careful and nuanced analysis, the authors show why no serious analyst of global financial governance can ignore this grouping any longer. * Eric Helleiner, Professor of Political Science, University of Waterloo * This book provides an authoritative, comprehensive, and lucid account of the rise of the BRICS. A compelling narrative about how a group of economies, which have some congruent interests but are simultaneously competitors in many other areas, have set aside their differences and come together as a force to reckon with in global finance. * Eswar Prasad, Tolani Senior Professor of Trade Policy, Cornell University, and Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution *
