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189 CHAPTER 10 Theorising BRICS: Institutionalisation and Cooperative Agendas Ravni Thakur INTRODUCTION A s BRICS countries move on from another Heads of State Summit, held in India on 29 March 2012, several questions naturally arise with regard to the growing institutionalisation of BRICS. These questions are being asked both within the member countries of BRICS and within the international community. The rest of the world largely views this group as either lacking in substance or as an attempt to project emerging economies as a power bloc that challenges the post-1944 world order. BRICS countries rightly feel that their growing economic clout as markets and manufacturing hubs means that they should have greater say in the global economic architecture. It is also seen as a group dominated by China, which has 75 per cent of the BRICS GDP. This perspective is specifically true of American analysts who have commented on the purpose of BRICS as a grouping. However, though the member countries and the political leadership are seen as enthusiastic, they themselves need to further clarify and put in place concrete mechanisms that further the goals of cooperation amongst them. In order to do that we need to spell out what BRICS means more clearly. The first part of this chapter is a discussion of questions that the author has been grappling with in her own research. These begin with the nature of BRICS cooperation, briefly examined by what scholars within and outside member countries are saying about this grouping both in terms of public media coverage and in terms of policy statements. In other words, how is BRICS being theorised as a space for possibly coordinated policies and actions in the international arena? What exactly are the aims of BRICS countries vis a vis cooperative engagement? And to what extent does ‘national interest’ compromise or promote a multi-lateral agenda amongst BRICS countries? 190 CHAPTER 10 The second part of this chapter will put forward areas where cooperative behaviour and agendas can converge. Although a level of institutionalisation , headed by the MEA’s of each country, has evolved due to the annual Heads of State Summit, only the matter of intent is spelt out in the official heads of state pronouncements. Here we see a definite agreement on changing the economic decision-making order of the world and allowing emerging economies more say in international monetary and trade policies . BRICS member countries all agree that their rising and increasingly globalising economies means that they also have greater direct interest in the decision-making processes of international trade and finance. Thus a basic common agenda has been repeatedly stressed at each summit. Little talk of any strategic or military cooperation has emerged. THEORISING BRICS Theorising BRICS means, first and foremost, drawing upon definitions of multi-lateralism within international relations theory and seeing how and if it applies to BRICS. Common goals, principles and institutionalised frameworks are often the hall marks of multi-lateral forums. Within IR theory, it is argued that calls for multi-lateral action in the post Cold War world are the result of a shift in the balance of power, especially economically. The emerging economies are demanding more say in setting the global agenda as their own economies rise. Again, emerging economies see the benefit of working together to further their agenda for a more equitable distribution of decision making at the international level. Multi-lateralism in an institutionalised form, as differentiated from alliances of the past, has been part of the global agenda since the end of the First World War when the League of Nations was set up. The limits of this early cooperation amongst European powers suffered largely because it remained a Eurocentric world agenda, dominated by colonialism where the rest of the world was concerned. The creation of the United Nations also coincided with the end of colonial domination and the emergence of several new independent countries in the 20th century. This in turn allowed the United Nations to emerge as a significant space of multi-lateral cooperation . The Cold War, however, ensured that the two super-powers divided the world into two camps and this division found itself reflected in the resolutions of the United Nations. It is only after the end of the Cold War that we have seen the possibility of genuine multi-lateral cooperation amongst nations. This cooperation has been regional and economic, as in the case of ASEAN, NAFTA and political and economic as is the case of...

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