Research Article |
Corresponding author: Gizem Aslanyürek ( gizemaslanyurek@gmail.com ) Academic editor: Marina Sheresheva
© 2023 Gizem Aslanyürek.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Aslanyürek G (2023) Does BRICS present multilateral bifurcation as an alternative to the West during the pandemic and global inflation crisis era? In: Iqbal BA (Ed.) COVID-19: Its Impact on BRICS Economies. BRICS Journal of Economics 4(1): 117-129. https://doi.org/10.3897/brics-econ.4.e99454
|
This paper gives an overview of cooperative activities between the BRICS countries and their internal projections. It also analyzes the BRICS engagement as a new, alternative global institution through the global governance and multilateralism policies of BRICS. It asserts that BRICS cooperation has presented its global political and economic policies and demonstrated the tendency to prove its global goal as more than a regional organization but a new worldwide alternative to the West-oriented global institutions and cooperation. While it analyzes the objectives of the internal and international projects and coordination of the BRICS, it also examines the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic process, ongoing global inflation, and the challenges that occur dependently as a case study. The paper analyzes the texts of BRICS Summit reports and investigates the issue of whether BRICS will create a new bifurcation (Wallerstein) and drive the global power transition by challenging the rigid Western-based world order through its discourse of creating multilateral and multi-polar global system based on inclusiveness and the spirit of openness (BRICS Summit, 2022). On the other hand, there is the reality of BRICS that still face serious challenges, particularly after the pandemic period. This paper contributes to BRICS’ multilateralism and inclusiveness discourse by introducing bifurcation theory as a theoretical frame to determine the vision and the action of the BRICS group despite many challenges.
bifurcation, BRICS, Covid-19, power transition, global inflation crisis, inclusiveness, multilateralism, multipolar, win-win policy
The literal meaning of bifurcation is the division of something into two branches or paths. Immanuel Wallerstein describes the current state of the global system as a structural crisis (2010) and explains the features of this structural crisis with four premises. He emphasizes the cyclical turn of the set of systemic fluctuations (
As we know, the capitalist economic system based on accumulation of capital has existed for a long time. Accumulation of capital is only possible when one country or a group of countries has a quasi-monopoly (
At present, the new phenomenon of globalization and governance replaced the phenomenon of development, which indicated the new beginning of the cycle. Wallerstein claims that this new beginning of the cycle started in the 1970s and is expected to continue until 2050 (2011). Until then, the system will be in chaos, which is one of the possible results, as it is mentioned above, and the order of the chaos and change will continue till reaching the new stability. Moreover, this change does not only include political or economic changes but also climate changes, the world’s condition, availability of resources, and the inter-state system.
The group BRICS has been one of the results of this ongoing change and this paper aims to determine whether BRICS is the bifurcation of the existing world system that has been changing already. The BRICS countries present the developing economies and are home to the big number of populations of the globe. Besides these advantages, there is a well-known decline of the existing hegemonies and Bretton Wood institutions. This paper, firstly, gives a detailed description of the BRICS, their achievements and development using the example of BRICS’ response to Covid-19 and the global inflation crisis. These examples indicate their global vision which proves that they are involved in more than just regional cooperation: they aim to become global institutions. It also discusses the future assumptions and possible challenges that BRICS have been already facing and could face in the future.
BRICS is the acronym pointing to the group of five major emerging national economies; this group is associated with the emerging power of alliances between Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Before South Africa joined it in 2010, the group had been called BRIC and all those countries were also members of the G20. What makes BRICS so powerful is that each country is a major of its region and has significant influence power over the region. The term “emerging power alliances” was coined for the BRICS countries because of their powerful positions primarily in their region and at the global level, too; it is particularly suitable for some of the member countries. Firstly, all member countries except South Africa accommodate the world’s top ten biggest populations. The BRICS countries bring together the major emerging economies of the world that are home to 41% of the total population of the world. Secondly, according to the statistics, in 2018 their combined nominal GDP amounted to US$18.6 trillion, about 23.2% of the gross world product; combined GDP (PPP) amounted to around US$40.55 trillion (32% of the World’s GDP PPP), and they possessed an estimated US$4.46 trillion in combined foreign reserves (
From the very beginning, the new regional organization of BRICS chose the way of a global organization that has potential to shape and direct the world system. They have held their annual summits since 2009 and the last summit was in Beijing in 2022. During the 2021 summit in India, the main focus was on strengthening and reforming the multilateral system. They emphasized the shared values of peace, freedom, rule of law, respect for human rights, and democracy as well as a fair, just, inclusive, equitable, and representative multipolar international system, based on the UN Charter and international law (
When we look at the reasons for the need to reform multilateralism, we see the rise of the BRICS countries that triggered a drastic shift towards multipolarity and has put significant pressure on existing hegemonic multilateral institutions (
The 1st summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia in June 2009. The focus of the first summit was on the outcomes of the G20, preparation for the next G20 summit, and reflection over cooperation in the group. Most importantly, they emphasized the importance of reforming financial institutions to increase multilateralism and make the non-Western world, or emerging powers, part of the international order (
The 5th BRICS summit which was held in Durban in 2013 addressed the close relations with African countries. In this regard, they emphasized the need for more democratic global governance, in particular changes in the IMF quota system as part of the reform of the international financial institutions (
Through the second cycle of the BRICS summit in Fortaleza in 2014, the agreement on establishing the New Development Bank was signed. The participants highlighted the importance of infrastructure projects, inclusive growth and sustainable solutions in the development of emerging economies (
During the 8th summit in Goa in 2016, they stated ‘common interests and key priorities to further strengthen our strategic partnership in the spirit of openness, solidarity, equality, mutual understanding, inclusiveness, and mutually beneficial cooperation’ (
During the 11th summit in Brasil in 2019, the participants again turned their attention to the unequal implementation of IMF’s quotas and highlighted the ‘emerging markets and dynamic economies, which remain under-represented in the Fund’ (
The 13th summit, held in India, dealt with Covid-19 and multilateralism (
The latest summit was held in Beijing in 2022; its main goal was to ‘foster high-quality BRICS partnership and usher in a new era for global development’ (
Since 2019, the world has been struggling with the new pandemic of Covid-19 which caused much socioeconomic damage. Most importantly, the hegemonic countries’ tools or their global institutions indicated their failure in meeting this challenge. There are over 680 million confirmed cases and over 6,5 million human lives lost all over the world (
After the significant human damage of Covid-19, the biggest impact of the pandemic was on the economy. The lack of stable global financial institutions has worsened, inflation all over the world flared up, and the existing global governance institutions allocated USD 6 million for emergency response loans to member countries. Meanwhile, Bretton Wood could not respond to the need capably. Contrary to that, BRICS seems to have a better, more efficient, and effective response to Covid-19 (
Even though the number of member states in the New Development Bank indicates a smaller scale to handle, the speed and the equality of the action had determined the effort of BRICS to provide sustainable and inclusive financial development. At the beginning of the outbreak, 10 billion US$ was allocated to help with the consequences of the outbreak and to contribute to the process of fighting with the Covid-19. On the other hand, the cooperative behavior of the member states has proven a reiteration of unity and consolidated their cooperation to jointly establish a stable global financial situation (
Due to the effects of the pandemic, the 13th,, Russia-based, BRICS summit could be held after many changes in the schedule. For both the 13th and 14th BRICS summits, the focus was Covid-19 pandemic. During the summit in India in 2021, it was stated that ‘over the past year and a half, the pandemic manifested itself as one of the most serious global challenges in recent history, wreaking immeasurable political, economic and social damage, and thereby reminding us that in an intertwined world, truly effective and representative multilateralism is no longer an abstract idea to be evoked in matters of war and peace alone, but an essential tool for ensuring successful governance of matters of everyday life and promoting the well-being of people and a sustainable future for the planet’ (
According to BRICS Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Statement (2021), the BRICS countries criticized the advanced countries for their failure to meet their obligations and maintain economic stability. BRICS have been supporting global institutions and emphasizing this support even though they criticize many aspects of Western-made international institutions. One of them is the ongoing discussions with WTO on the proposal of “Intellectual Property Right to deal with Covid-19”, however, they were criticizing the inadequacy of the West in conducting equal and multilateral cooperation and slowness to deliver the vaccines to developing and undeveloped countries. Therefore, they decided to conduct two immediate response measures “Fiscal Policy Response” and “Monetary Policy Response” (ibid). The fiscal policy is to provide immediate financial support to vulnerable businesses and households. As for the monetary policy, the BRICS Central Bank kept the accommodative policy rate at very low level, to boost the liquidity in both foreign and domestic currencies through open market and other instruments (ibid).
During the era of globalization, many countries have been unable to engage with the global world and provide influential governance (
Cooperation can help provide solutions to global issues and balance the global environment. Therefore, organizations such EU with its formality and deep integration, G20 which provides rising cooperation with the informal bodies, and BRICS which is the center of developing powers try to take a place on the global platform to adapt to the changing world system and tackle the challenges. G20 was created at the end of the 1990s to promote informal dialogue among 20 significant economies in the world and discuss global financial issues (Kirton, 2013). Initially, it had been established to combat the Asian financial crisis and its influence on the finance ministers, but later it was elevated to the level of heads of state and governments in 2008 as a response to the US and European financial crisis (
The legitimacy of G20 was formed by its contribution to fostering inclusive and sustainable growth, open trade, protection of the environment and climate, and socio-economic progress. It also reinforced the engagement with non-state actors such as think tanks, businesses, scientific establishments, women’s groups, and youth associations (
The BRICS countries still have challenges similar to those on the day of the start, and also new challenges that the global situation has given rise to.
In this paper, the main objective was to analyze the entity of BRICS and their standing discourse. All BRICS summits have been classified by their highlights; they indicated where and why they are standing and what for. Wallerstein's bifurcation theory was the main framework in which to analyze the BRICS achievements and plans for future and determine the BRICS position in the world order. As bifurcation theory indicates, the world system should change constantly, and this change is a cycle of premises. The first premise was the existing system and phenomenon. With the passage of the premise the existing system is weakening and losing its legitimacy in terms of efficiency. This leads to the stagnation of the system and economy of fluctuations, but definitely, there will be a lack of representation and stability. With the second premise, the system is heading into a structural crisis which flares up the need for reform and the developing countries or organizations will try to take a place in the system to be the pioneers of the change. As the last premise, the system will either move into chaos, or a new system will be established. The order of the chaos is not a situation anyone would like to see, so the attempt to establish a new system will begin. At this moment, therefore, we see the position of the BRICS countries in its discourse where we find that, from the beginning, the reasons for their cooperation always supported the idea of bifurcation. They represented themselves as supporters of the existing system seeking to improve its regulation and institutions. Although the reality of support for the existing system is clear, there are as many criticisms of the system. The new implementations, such as NDB, determine BRICS as bifurcation. BRICS now have the image of both a new bifurcation and a global space due to a grouping of important countries from different continents. The situation of the pandemic and global inflation crisis have been used as a case study to provide an empirical overview to determine the bifurcation of BRICS and clarify the bifurcation theory. The BRICS accepted the discourse of 'global health' at the Beijing Summit (2011) and recognized WHO as an entity with its policies. After that, health is one of the important topics of the summit aiming to improve health systems in developing countries and, primarily, BRICS countries. When the pandemic began, the BRICS further policies were far from obvious. However, the BRICS countries have proved that with the decision of 'vaccine research and development' policies, they were dedicated to taking a global part (