Blog
On the centrality of BRICS trade liberalization for Africa
With the completion of the 2023 BRICS summit in South Africa there is a clear sense that a fundamental shift has indeed taken place in the perceptions of BRICS on the international stage. The expansion launched during that summit has certainly raised the attention towards BRICS in the world’s media space, with almost diametrically opposed…
The future of the BRICS+ format
The 2023 BRICS summit is over and it is clear that it is one of the most historic and transformational BRICS summits on record. While there has not been much progress on critical issues such as BRICS+ trade liberalization or the creation of a new reserve currency, a major expansion was unleashed by the bloc,…
The 2023 BRICS summit: what market impact?
This year the focus on the BRICS summit may finally reach a point when it is going to be followed closely not just by the BRICS scholars, but by the wider global community, including the global financial markets. The reason is simply that the BRICS agenda centered on the block’s expansion as well as the…
What are the modalities of BRICS expansion?
BRICS expansion is set to become the main topic of discussion at the BRICS summit in South Africa and as with so many actively discussed matters there is enormous confusion about what this expansion actually means. Is it just about the expansion in the BRICS core membership or a BRICS+ format? In the latter case,…
BRICS+ as a compromise format for the 2023 summit
The nearing of the 2023 BRICS summit is expectedly generating all sorts of controversies around which candidate economies are to accede to the BRICS core or form a “circle of friends” of the grouping. The revelations of the past several weeks that there are divisions within the BRICS around the issue of the expansion are…
More regionalism for the global economy: a conversation with ChatGPT
The trends towards greater regionalization of the world economy are becoming increasingly pronounced as reflected in the growing prominence of regional integration projects in the developing world such as AfCFTA or RCEP. What if these trends were to persist? How would the landscape of global economic governance be transformed? In looking at these trends I…
All the BRICS+ amities
The upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa is set to reveal the criteria as well as possibly the composition of the next wave of BRICS members and/or members of the expanded BRICS+ alliance. In many respects this is set to be one of the most significant BRICS summits in the past decade as the BRICS+…
Policy-makers waking up to the regionalization trends
On July 17-18, 2023 an EU-CELAC summit of the heads of state and governments is to be held in Brussels, with some of the possible themes for discussion featuring the progress in the EU-MERCOSUR FTA deal. Such an FTA agreement would be one of the most significant steps directed at boosting economic cooperation between regional…
How does the BRICS currency transform the world economy?
The creation of a BRICS currency has become throughout the past year one of the headline themes related not only to BRICS, but also the global financial markets. Along with the skepticism coming from most of the pundits from the developed world there is also an enormous number of misconceptions and unsubstantiated claims of the…
Incredulous observers: why have they missed the “BRICS+ moment”?
As the August 2023 BRICS summit draws near, there are more and more alarm bells ringing from various parts of the academic community regarding the “excessive ambition” coming from BRICS attempts to change global governance. One of such recent pronouncements came from no other than “Dr. Doom” himself, Nouriel Roubini, who argued that: “The idea…
