The BRICS initiative and China: between emergence and irrelevance

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse the BRICS phenomenon from a critical perspective. The leading problem of the article is to explore how the mainstream IR and IPE interpret the emergence of BRICS as an “economic and political formation” of the international system. The main questions are: do the BRICS challenge the liberal Western order? And, how does this change affect the development and global insertion of periphery countries? W estate that the process of BRICS’ institutional strengthening and its potential to expand as BRICS plus is not an isolated process. Hence, it cannot be understood without taking into consideration China’’s leading role in the establishment new global institutions, which implies changes in global hegemony.