The world is full of economic alliances with acronyms. The EU, ASEAN, and the G7 are just some. The EU functions more as a nation-state, while most are much looser. The BRICS alliance, founded in 2009 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China (hence the name) has significant differences from the others.
Its primary goal is to create an alternative to the existing global economic order dominated by the West/US. In particular, it seeks to create alternatives to the dollar-dominated world trade system, SWIFT interbank payment system, and IMF & World Bank.
So far, it hasn't made huge progress with this agenda. The US dollar's role in global trade is firmly embedded. The only other currency that comes close in volume/importance is the Euro. As China doesn't allow its currency to float freely or have open capital markets, the Chinese Renminbi can't currently replace the dollar's international role.
But is this about to change? The current US administration rejects much of the old global economic order. Ironic, considering it originally created it. Since 2009 China and Russia have even more reasons to want a global financial alternative the US doesn't have a role in. Maybe the US is helping them to create it?
As the US retreats from the post-WW2 global order it created, 22 countries are lining up to join the BRICS alliance, which seeks a new global order.
byu/lughnasadh inFuturology
29 Comments
Just my take on it, but 16 years is a long time. I feel that if it was going to work, it would have worked
This is some lame propaganda right here.
Go look at the wiki and read in awe as we have the list of the same sad and tired dictatorships that we always hear about but no one cares.
Let Iran and ethiopia shake their sticks.
Is there something to be said about the US power vacume? Yes, but it’s more about localized power consolidation like possible a EU military or SEATO.
No country with any brains would join Brics unless they desperately needed the bribe money that came with it.
BRICS nations and countries joining now account for a majority of global manufacturing and population. Alongside projected population growth and make up a much larger portion of the global GDP than when founded I believe it’s around 45%
and are steadily approaching more than half of all global GDP.
A key difference here from the prior order is that this one is built on mutual co-operation. The goal isn’t to replace the dollar with another currency but balance trade with native currencies. Replacing it with a single currency gets us right back to the prior status quo. Alongside the belt and road initiative all of these countries grow their economies and GDPs without maintaining hyper-exploitative relationships with other nations. A majority of the BRICS countries and joining countries if not all have been colonised and exploited by the G7 (and others) other at one point or another.
Thus far it’s also been working and even the IMF and World bank note the difficulties of trying to compete with BRICS and especially Chinese infrastructure loans that are actively helping these countries grow their economies at an explosive pace.
It’s not a defense or military compact like NATO either.
Honneslty…look at who is in there.. no chance in hell.
Sorry but brics is not an alternative world order.
It is barely a counterweight inside a globalised world.
Brics will fail, but the us willingly giving up its influence and control of global economics and politics and letting china replace it is the dumbest thing any country has ever done in human history.
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USA First is USA Alone.
Also, where they pull away, China moves in.
Likely it will be the CPTPP after the EU accession rather than BRICS, no one has any interest in dealing with Russia: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_and_Progressive_Agreement_for_Trans-Pacific_Partnership
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/03/14/eu-cptpp-integration-a-strategic-roadmap-in-a-multipolar-world/
Russia is China’s bitch. China and India are at each others throats. SA and Brazil have their own myriad of issues and are weak on the global stage compared to other members. BRICS is not an alternative to anything as it’s basically made of shit and plywood.
There is a tale from Krylov in Russia, called the swan, the pike and the lobster.
The point is, all 3 pull a cart in 3 different directions, and it goes nowhere.
Same here, BRICS would love to have a great alternative to dollar, but no one wants all the issues of having your currency as the world reserve one
This is necessary
Just like the U.S. and Britain stood against Nazism, so the civilized world must today band together to oppose America and Israel.
The alternative, then as now, would be the end of civilization as we know it
Have there will no brics. Just China and its vassal states
Read Ray Dalio’s “Changing World Order”. Great insights and framing for what is happening.
BRICS is a joke, and so are the people that fear it
BRICS is replacement of UN and Unification. It’s new name but same centralization.
We’re pulling an isolationist Japan.
Cant wait to see how we get disrupted similarly by modern global nations showing up with tech that makes us look even more primitive.
BRICS doesn’t even need an alternative to SWIFT, that’s what cryptocurrencies are for. And while crypto could never support the amount of everyday transactions SWIFT sees, it can support the big ones between BRICS nations. It being decentralized means no one nation is seeding financial power to the other.
I know reddit, specifically r/futurology hates crypto but it does a good job at disputing BRICS currency talk.
Not a single person here in the comments or in that god damn article even understand the point of BRICS and it shows.
As an American (USA-ian), and more importantly, a seasoned, hardened capitalist, I welcome the BRICS and wish them good luck.
The USA has gotten fat, dumb and lazy. Competition is a good thing. We desperately need something to wake us up and re-kindle the “Good old yankee ingenuity” that ***actually*** made our country great. No one should care about anyone’s sex life. *It just doesn’t matter!* What matters is innovation, ingenuity and productivity, regardless of how you dress or who is waiting for you at home.
China, I’m rooting for you to give us chase. Nothing will focus our attention on what’s important more than having a competitor nipping at our heels in a fair and honest race. Down with protectionism — it is a road to stagnation. Closed borders and cultural arrogance was what cost China a century of development. They’ve learned their lesson and now they’re roaring back.
Bring on the BRICS! Scare America into taking education seriously again, and bring back the incredible “can-do” culture we once had.
Russia is one of the prime drivers for BRICS, right? What if all the chaos of the Trump administration is just to make BRICS more palpable?
Flimsy and weak bloc. What countries you got? Do they even work together? India and China aren’t friends. Brazil is trying to be relevant but can’t seem to really make an impact on the global stage. Best of luck brics
> The only other currency that comes close in volume/importance is the Euro. As China doesn’t allow its currency to float freely or have open capital markets, the Chinese Renminbi can’t currently replace the dollar’s international role.
They are not trying to replace USD with another currency, what they are doing is trading in local currencies, while pegging prices against a basket of currencies. There is no reason for Brazil to trade with India in Renminbi…
In such trade there are obviously a lot more moving parts, so right now only very large contracts work like that, however, the more such contracts get signed the more financial infrastructure is being built around this sort of contracts, so the process becomes more streamlined and getting available to smaller contracts.
No they are not.
Almost every single thing you read about BRICS is done by China to promote their own desires. Cha believes they can defeat the US and become the major superpower. It’s all political. Stop reading the propaganda
Edit: anyone who believes that a Chinese or Russia monetary system will replace the dollar or the west is a fool.
Now, the dollar will lose some ground, investors are looking at everything including gold and as long as Mr to late Powell is running the fed we will endure more rough seas.
But China manipulates their money value, China also is having a total economic collapse right now, China will only get worse for the next few years
Trump is a Russian asset and is intentionally trying to destroy the US/West based system. He is controlled by Putin et al.
With Trump it seems like everything he does hurts our traditional allies and benefits Russia. I wonder why that is.
The wiki link says these countries applied during the 15th brics summit which was held in 2023. Which would place these countries applying under bidens term before trump won his election. Can you clarify the timeliness youve provided because this seems like an event that already occurred were pretending is occurring again.
There is nothing holding BRICS together other than their opposition to the US order. Soon as the US is out of the picture, BRICS falls apart. What the US did have which made it so powerful is the anglosphere which by extension gave them the rest of Europe.
BRICS has none of that. There is little to no cultural similarities between the 4 main BRICS countries. Brazil has literally zero cultural ties with Russia, China or India. Cultural ties between Russia, China and India are minimal. China has a large Buddhist population, that’s it. India isn’t even Buddhist anymore. This is why BRICS will fail and it’s one of the biggest weaknesses of China, that they have no natural allies. They’re called ‘Middle Kingdom’ for a reason, because they saw themselves as the centre of the world.
As of last month China already implemented their digital Renminbi for cheap and fast cross border payments. They’re rapidly filling the vacuum the US has left. Despite their approaching demographic issues, this will undoubtedly be China’s century the way the 20th was for the US.
Basically the who’s who of morally bankrupt countries.