Edited by Suranjan Das and Tridib Chakraborti
Published by KW Publishers
124 pages ₹980
At a time when geopolitics appears to be caught in a Thucydides Trap, India is hosting the two-day Brics summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. The acronym stands for a ragtag group of countries, similar to the alphabet soups created by the permutation and combination of groupings such as India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) and Russia-India-China (RIC). While these two groupings are almost defunct, the introduction to the volume under review proclaims that Brics aims “to promote geographically and politically diverse coalition to promote a more inclusive and multipolar global order that can moderate Western dominance in global governance structure”. The volume is edited by two eminent academics, Suranjan Das, vice chancellor of Adamas University, Kolkata, and Tridib Chakraborti, emeritus professor at the same institution. It comprises six papers and addresses presented at a national seminar at Kolkata in February this year jointly organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs and Adamas University.
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The motley grouping is tom-tommed as accounting for over 40 per cent of the world’s population, roughly one-third of the global gross domestic product measured by purchasing power parity, and nearly 23 per cent of international merchandise trade. India has participated in all the summit meetings and hosted the summit meeting in New Delhi in 2012, in Goa in 2016 and again in Delhi in 2021. This is the fourth time that India is hosting the summit.
In his address setting the tone and tenor of Brics, Rajiv Bhatia, a former diplomat and scholar, observes that while the expansion of Brics membership is evidence of its growing global appeal and legitimacy, the enlargement inevitably introduces new layers of complexity. He also underlines the importance of conceptualising Brics as “non-West” rather than” anti-West”, thereby preserving strategic autonomy while avoiding ideological confrontation. Commenting on the rationale for the expansion of Brics, Brazil’s ambassador to India, Kenneth Felix Haczynski da Nobrega, argues that enlargement can only be properly understood through a careful analysis of the grouping’s evolution and internal dynamics. He traces Brics’ trajectory from its early articulation as a counterpoise to the widening gap between the formal structures of global governance and actual distribution of global power. He sees the present role of Brics as a catalyst for emerging economies and a driver of transition towards a more multipolar international order.
Sharing the Chinese perspective, the Acting Consul-General of China in Kolkata, Qin Yong, notes that Brics embodies the shared aspirations of the Global South for deeper co-operation, mutual respect, and coordinated development in the face of mounting global uncertainties and entrenched structural imbalances. Unlike the diplomatic assessments of Brazil and China, Ambassador Krishnan Srinivasan and Professor Sreeram Chaulia offer sharp insights in their presentations. Ambassador Srinivasan argues that for India, Brics remains strategically valuable despite its ties with the US. This ideological and strategic heterogeneity impels a thoughtful calibration of the grouping’s capacity to function as a unified geographical rival to the US, he argues. Professor Chaulia argues that international asymmetries, particularly the widening economic and strategic gap between China and other members, as well as the India-China tensions complicate the prospects for Brics cohesiveness.
currently consulting editor for the Journal of Parliamentary Information
