BRICS' Style of Multipolarity

The announcement of BRICS enlargement in August 2023 was met with excitement and enthusiasm by the Global South. As the expansion officially took place in the beginning of 2024, the news outlets throughout the developing world praised the expansion of the grouping as a step toward the multipolar world order. However, the excitement among new and aspiring members is premature. For now, BRICS remains an exclusive club, which hardly represents the Global South. Moreover, the expansion is likely to render BRIC less functional politically as consensus based decisions would be much harder to achieve. Furthermore, even if the sole purpose of the organization revolves around the development of the alternative global order, the current membership composition of the states which are used to hedging their positions would not make BRICS a balancing mechanism against the Western-based global order.

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