BRICS Rising: A New Bloc Challenges the Old Order Amid Internal Tensions

BRICS summit in Brazil, which was held recently, offered the clearest signal yet that the bloc of emerging economies is maturing into something more ambitious than a symbolic counterweight to the West.

- TDG NETWORK

Once a loosely defined acronym coined by an investment banker, BRICS is now an 11-member coalition representing more than half the world's population and around 40% of global GDP—surpassing the G7 in combined economic heft by $20 trillion.

The newest member, Indonesia, joins a group that has grown in influence and complexity. Yet with size comes contradiction. BRICS has positioned itself as an advocate for reforming global governance, calling for more inclusive international institutions and greater respect for international law. But its credibility is undermined by the nature of its own membership: a majority of BRICS states are authoritarian regimes, and the bloc's selective moral positioning—for instance, condemning Ukraine's strikes on Russian infrastructure while remaining silent on Moscow's aggression—weakens its standing on the global stage.