The BRICS summit in Kazan heralds the dawn of a new world order

A wide-ranging de-dollarisation agenda is finally in the the works

I’ve written for UnHerd about the 16th BRICS Summit that kicks off today in Kazan, in southwest Russia, and why it may very well go down in history as one of the most consequential international summits of the twenty-first century, and as a potential milestone in global power dynamics. Some are even touting it as a “Bretton Woods for the Global South” — a reference to the historic agreement that exactly eighty years ago laid the groundwork for the postwar dollar-based international monetary order, and for almost a century of US-Western global hegemony, today increasingly challenged by non-Western actors.

But aside from its economic and financial implications, the summit is first and foremost a powerful political statement. Since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, the West has sought to isolate Russia through sanctions and diplomatic pressure. However, the BRICS summit demonstrates that these efforts have failed to achieve their intended effect. Instead of finding itself isolated, Russia is hosting a summit where many nations are eager to strengthen their economic and political ties with Moscow.

Aside from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the original BRICS members, the event is set to gather heads of state or high-ranking officials from 32 countries, including the organisation’s four new entrants (from this year) — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates — as well as numerous other countries interested in membership, including Turkey, the first-ever NATO country to consider joining the BRICS. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will also be present.

The event testifies to the growing influence of the Global South — or the Global Majority, as the Russians like to call it — and its search for an alternative to the US-led system, as well as to Moscow’s ability to dialogue with a growing number of countries excluded from the Western order, represented by bodies such as the G7 and financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Some 40 nations are reportedly on the waiting list to join, with heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and Indonesia expressing serious interest, further illustrating the growing attractiveness of this “non-Western club”, and the BRICS’ appeal as a platform for nations seeking alternatives to Western-dominated economic and financial structures, often accused of jeopardising the economic development, social stability and national sovereignty of weaker countries.

It’s particularly telling of the West’s tone-deaf approach to the rest of the world that, to the former’s surprise, many countries expressed an interest in joining the BRICS after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war — a clear sign that, in what was correctly perceived to be a wider geopolitical confrontation between NATO and Russia, much of the world chose to side with the latter. Ironically, the West’s sanctions regime — and especially the freezing of $300 billion of Russia’s foreign-exchange reserves, an unprecedented act of economic warfare — is what motivated many countries to look for alternatives to the dollar-denominated Western financial infrastructure, as they became acutely clear that what had happened to Russia could happen to anyone.

The expansion of the BRICS, coupled with the growing interest from the Global South, underscores the momentous geopolitical power shift underway — from the West to Rest — and makes the Kazan summit not only a diplomatic milestone but also a symbolic event heralding the rise of a new, multipolar world. Especially considering that a wide-ranging de-dollarisation agenda is finally in the the works.

Read the article here.

I’ve also written a shorter post about a recent study showing that young Germans’ biggest fear is a full-scale war in Europe. Having been robbed of their best years during the pandemic, young Europeans are now being terrorised by irresponsible — and potentially self-fulfilling — war propaganda.

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Thomas Fazi

Website: thomasfazi.net

Twitter: @battleforeurope 

Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)