BRICS: a counter hegemonic project?
BRICS: a counter hegemonic project?
Ana Helena Resende
It is important that BRICS countries support each other on issues concerning core interests, practice true multilateralism, safeguard justice, fairness and solidarity and reject hegemony, bullying and division.
Xi Jinping at the 14th BRICS Summit, June 24th, 2022
(CHINA EMBASSY, 2022)
Hegemony is a concept imported from Gramsci's socialist theorizations: it means the ideological dominance of the ruling classes over the subordinate class in civil society (CARNOY, 1988, p.99). Within a social group, the powerful gain consent for their domination through hegemony in society, and exercise domination through control of the coercive apparatuses of the state. Brought to International Relations by Robert Cox (1981, p. 171), Hegemony is an order within a world economy with a dominant mode of production which penetrates into all countries and links into other subordinate modes of production.
As a practice, Hegemony implies a great capacity for coercion and/or a great degree of influence read as control of the structures of the international system. This involves the behavior of its units, even though it excludes the establishment of relations of direct and official control of foreign governments or territories (ANTONIADES, 2008, p. 2). That is, a hegemon owns structures of domination that do not necessarily infringe on the physical sovereignty of states, but that are economically coercive.
From a liberal approach, Ikenberry and Kupchan (1990, p. 287-288) summarize the constitutive elements of hegemonic power as military capabilities; control over raw materials, markets, and capital; and competitive advantages in highly valued goods. With a comparative point of view, BRICS represent more than one quarter of global GDP, and 42% of the world's population (UNCTAD, 2023). Together, in purchasing power parity, the GDP of the BRICS - mainly carried by the Popular Republic of China - largely exceeds that of the USA or the European Union (IPEA, 2020). Therefore, the group has the potential to become a multilateral hegemon if it instrumentalizes its economic power onto geopolitical strength.
Given its economical importance, BRICS have seen their economic influence increase over the past decades, as drivers of global growth, trade and investment. With new impulses towards the New Development Bank (NDB) and a recent international attention with propositions of an alternative currency, the group may be reascending as a contrast to the current Hegemony. Since the NDB (2023) has been mobilizing resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in emerging markets and developing countries (EMDCs), is there a new economic multipolar hegemonic power structuring itself?
Why BRICS?
It was 2001 when the economist Jim O'Neill launched the theory and the acronym BRIC, which referred to the countries that were experiencing rapid economic development and were not global powers. Initially, the group consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, and China. Later, the letter S was added to represent South Africa. The more these countries succeed, the more they demonstrate to the traditional powers why it is sensible for the emerging nations to have an appropriate share of power and recognition, as well as representation in major global institutions (O'NEILL, 2023, p. 6). That is, in a world of increased realpolitik and reduced interdependence, the expansion of BRICS is not only likely, but necessary to the construction of a counter Hegemony, one based on the development of south-south cooperation and the rejection of polarization.
Despite their movement for independence, emerging powers (EPs) ultimately seek to join the group of established states and to achieve privileges reserved for those states. While they can't achieve those positions, emerging countries form clubs and mobilize their material capabilities as a tool in pursuit of diplomatic ambitions, seeking to oblige established states to accept their new position in international society as vocal actors (MAHRENBACH, 2019, p. 224). This is the BRICS impulse, that could find a way for counter-Hegemony.
Hegemony is also the capacity of a socio-economic group to exert moral and political leadership (LEILA, 2016). Nowadays, it can be seen as a western dominated field, headed by the liberal forces from the USA and EU, that have been facing a rising opponent with the ascent of China. On official statement, Xi Jinping (2022) affirmed that China would like to work with BRICS partners to operationalize the Global Security Initiative (GSI), advocate a vision of common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security, create a new path that features dialogue over confrontation, partnership over alliance and win-win over zero-sum, and bring more stability to the world. In this context, the BRICS have a chance to present a collaborative counter hegemonic project, posing a challenge: shifting Hegemony through Economy.
Currency changes
Here, we attain the Gramscian approach for Hegemony. Such political control can have two facets: domination based on coercion; or on consent. From a sociological perspective, a hegemon has to be able to create consensus through common sense. Internationally, the BRICS have to convince other countries to join their project in order to build a counter hegemony towards cooperation for the Global South. Egypt, Argentine, Iran, United Arab Emirates, Argelia, Bahrain and Indonesia are a few countries that have submitted official candidatures (VEJA, 2023), revealing the groups popularity.
Proposing a reshaping of the global geopolitical map, the core of the BRICS project is the fight against the U.S. controlled institutions through the formation of an alternative economy (BRICS, 2023). Most recently, this effort can be seen in the proposition of an alternative currency unit used specifically to settle cross-border trade, rather than a currency unit to replace other local currencies (GLOBAL TIMES, 2023). This shift "would be like a new union of up-and-coming discontents who, on the scale of GDP, now collectively outweigh not only the reigning hegemon, the United States, but the entire G-7 weight class put together" (SULLIVAN, 2023).
With Keohane's After Hegemony (1984) thesis, we can perceive that the decline or collapse of a hegemon does not necessarily end the hegemony created by it. Nonetheless, the weakening of the core elements for Hegemony undoubtedly threaten a country's dominance. By itself, the mere idea of an alternative currency to the dollar to finance the exchange between Brazil, China, Russia, India and South Africa has caused inquietude to international trade. De-dollarization has been an intention of foreign governments who wished to liberate themselves from reliance on the U.S. dollar, however, it is progressively turning into a plausible proposal for Global South nations and, of course, finding resistance with current Hegemony.
Historically, to become hegemonic, a state would have to find and protect a world order which was universal in conception: an order in which most states could find some compatibility with their interests (COX, 1983, p. 168) bouncing toward some sort of harmony of interests (IKENBERRY, 1990). In a global economy where the US already is no longer as dominant as it once was (O'NEILL, 2023), perpetuating an almost exclusive dependence on the American monetary system and the Federal Reserve’s domestically driven priorities poses risks for developing nations and, therefore, a questioning of the status quo. This is precisely what Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa could change if well articulating their alternative currency.
The BRICS would also be poised to achieve a level of self-sufficiency in international trade that has eluded the world’s other currency unions. Because a BRICS currency union would not be among countries united by shared territorial borders, its members would likely be able to produce a wider range of goods than any existing monetary union (SULLIVAN, 2023). Of course, the dollar would hardly be left aside quickly since it has strong value and predictableness, and BRICS would continue to trade in USD with other nations aside from their quintuple. De-dollarization, if doable, has to be seen as a long-run project.
Potentially adding Saudi Arabia and Iran to the group would also enable control of global chains of production when it comes to fuel: two major oil producers, in addition to Russia, increase the likelihood of some oil being priced in currencies other than the dollar (O'NEILL, 2023), and becoming more accessible to trade. However, it is known that the dollar is at the core of international trade, and will not be shaken easily. Besides issuing geopolitical statements, BRICS have to impose themselves against the current Hegemony, in order to build up strength and unity for multilateralism.
Foreseeable future
When asked about the future of the BRICS, Jim O'Neill (EXAME, 2020) reinforced that challenges related to global governance will need to be addressed in order to reduce the countries' dependence on commodities. With irony, the economist said that given the poor performance of the group with bilateral and multilateral cooperation in the last decade, the relationship hasn't been explored to its full potential. When it comes to mere financial data, the acronym should be reduced to only ICs (O'NEILL, 2023, p. 2), since China alone presents twice the GDP of BRIS; and India has established itself as the fifth world economy in 2022.
Regarding global governance, the New Development Bank can be seen as the main strategy of the group towards creating institutions that enable a framework for south south cooperation and less dependence. More than a counter hegemonic effort, BRICS countries are progressively seen as an effort to gain representation in major post world war II global organizations; such diplomatic impulse is typical to developing countries with international relevance. However, the primary goal must be achieving substantive goals within their own existence as a geopolitical alliance, such as the development of settlements in national currencies to boost economic growth (TVBRICS, 2022).
Talani (2016) proposes that the loss of the national level of economic governance is not compensated by the creation of multilayered systems of economic governance spanning from the local to the supranational level: regionalization must be seen as a step toward globalization. Operating as an economic group, BRICS have more than never the opportunity of a fairer globalization process for developing countries, one that is anchored in a counter-Hegemony.
Seemingly utopic, the group has a long path ahead to establish a new currency. However, it will undoubtedly have strong support from counter-hegemonic countries - that is, nations underprivileged by the current order. In the image below, it can be seen the estimated support that BRICS would receive in trade, opening the way to a possible prospect of domination of a currency supported by the NDB at the expense of other global currencies such as USD and EUR (COQUIDÉ, p. 10). Since the last decade, it has become progressively more interesting for developing nations to trade in currencies alternative to the US dollar. The image below mirrors the currency preferences and shows a bounce towards a BRICS currency.
The transition made by emerging powers consists in being concretely characterized by a transition from a weaker to a stronger position in the global economy, by a transition from being ‘rule-takers’ to ‘rule-makers’ in global governance (MAHRENBACH, 2019, p. 223). However, real progress would only come if the established states acknowledge the validity and legitimacy of EPs' leadership aspirations and/or their reform proposals (Ibid).
In conclusion, BRICS have the potential to establish a counter hegemonic project, paving the way through what they do best: trading. The success of this project depends heavily on China and India, the group's biggest economies; Brasil's diplomatic abilities of pragmatic equidistance; Russia outing the war with Ukraine; and South Africa presenting concrete economic growth. Adding new countries to a group without first establishing a strong sense of cooperation within the five current members could bring more harm than good. Therefore, the main viable way to face Hegemony would be to strategically create a new order quantitatively more beneficial to international society than the current one; that is, one that truly endorses multilateralism.
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