Emerging powers, Global power shift, Rise of BRICS Countries

An international organisation is always established to serve the interests of a particular group of related nations or societal groups. BRICS is the acronym for the organisation that seeks to serve the interest of five developing and newly industrialised countries, namely, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (O’Neill 2001). BRICS should be seen in view of the new global order currently taking shape, especially the place of China. Since the end of the Cold War in 1990, the image of a unipolar world order came into being, with the USA as the unquestionable leader and with a hegemonic place in a unipolar world. However, that order is increasingly being challenged by China. Not only is it estimated that in the current calendar year, 2018, China will unseat the USA and become the number one country in the world as far as gross national product is concerned (Paton 2015), but with president Xi Jinping’s ‘belt and road’ policy initiative it has launched a forceful outward movement to fill the vacuum in the global economic and political landscape created when the 2008 economic slump led to a tapering off of the US-led globalisation. China has since then fully executed 101 agreements with 86 countries, and the total investment in the 24 countries along the belt and road regions amounts to US$50 billion (Jia 2018:A4). While the West is apprehensive about this initiative and cites as reasons China’s ‘authoritarian’ and ‘predatory’ stance and for not upholding ‘freedom, democracy and individual rights’ – core values of the West (the evaluation of this criticism falls beyond the scope of this chapter), Beijing’s initiative stands on three Chinese principles, namely, mutual consultation, joint construction and shared benefits (Jia 2018:A4), and moreover, this outward movement is a fact of international politics and a new global order, and pure realpolitik dictates that South African scholars of education should look into the possibility of tapping into this and also the possibilities it presents to produce impact-making research.

Productivity in the education system: Can it be improved on a continuous basis?
In the public and scientific discourse about education in South Africa, it has become
commonplace to refer to the poor quality of the South African education system. Another
frequently mentioned topic is the discrepancy between the investment from the national budget
in South African education and the return on this investment. Therefore, this article will refer
to economic principles in an attempt to arrive at a better understanding of productivity in the
education system in general, with specific reference to productivity in the South African
education system. While the focus on productivity in the education system may possibly be
criticised as presenting a narrow neoliberal view of education, it should be emphasised that
the neoliberal economic revolution has had a substantial influence globally and contributes,
by means of the introduction of particular measures, to greater efficiency in many institutions,
such as the use of productivity indices to understand the functioning of a particular institution.
It is pointed out in the article that the primary aim of the national education system is to
provide for the educational needs of the target group, namely the citizens of that country. An
education system is effective if the education supply provides, in an attainable and sustainable
manner, for the actual educational needs of the target group. It follows that the education
system is materially and financially efficient if educational needs are provided for in the most
affordable manner.
Different role players in the national community have an interest in the output of a
particular education system, including, for example, parents, the state, commerce and industry,
together with other organisations in the community. To ensure that the education system
provides effectively for their educational needs, these role players provide financial and
infrastructural resources to the functionaries of the education system. The trust of these role
players in the education system is strengthened if they are convinced that the resources will
be used in the most attainable, sustainable and affordable manner and that the application of
these resources will be towards the primary function of providing education and training on
pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary levels.
Thus, it is clear that an education system is successful if –
• its elements are integrated in such a manner that it effectively provides for the actual
educational needs of the target group;
• the education interest groups are convinced that the resources they make available
are applied in the most attainable and sustainable manner; and
• the particular education system functions according to the reciprocal relationship
between the internal and external trends to ensure that the maximum outputs are
realised.
Productivity is a concept that is rarely used by education practitioners and education
researchers in relation to education and the education system. Many educationists may suspect
that the use of concepts from the financial and managerial world, such as productivity, input
and output, will result in the commercialisation and corporatisation of education systems.
However, it is argued in this article that modern commercial and management concepts should
be made applicable to the education system in order to ensure a learner-centred education
system, which will assist learners in equipping themselves with the required competencies to
fulfil their unique roles in life. By focusing on principles such as effectivity and efficiency, the
functionaries of the education system will be able to ensure that its beneficiaries have trust in
the outcomes of the education system.
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Tydskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe, Jaargang 58 No. 4-2: Desember 2018
doi.10.17159/2224-7912/2018/v58n4-2a8
In essence, productivity means that one should do as much as possible with the resources
available. Therefore, productivity represents the relation between available resources and the
outcome of the use to which the resources have been put. The productivity index can be
calculated as follows and should be used to improve the operation of a particular education
system:
P = O/I [P represents the productivity index, O the output and I the input]
Productivity can be improved by either reducing the input and maintaining the same output,
or increasing the output and maintaining the same input, or increasing the output and, at the
same time, decreasing the input. Productivity can be improved by working more cleverly,
rather than simply working harder.
The endeavour to improve the productivity of the education system should not be a random
exercise, but rather a deliberate, planned, continuous and managed project. The first step in
this exercise should be a thorough and objective analysis of all elements of the education
system and the required actions to change whatever is deemed to be in need of improvement.
A second guideline is that productivity improvement should be executed in a balanced manner.
The possible positive and negative consequences should be considered in the context of the
relevant internal and external trends. The third guideline is that the productivity improvement
exercise should be done on a continuous basis and by using uncomplicated indicators involving
input and output.
It is important that the information acquired from the productivity exercises should be
used in the planning of and budgeting for the education system. The external and internal
contextual trends should be concretely acknowledged, especially the internal contextual trend
of a reciprocal nature. Another important aspect concerns a thorough analysis of the
organisational management structures – the flatter, the better. Particular attention should also
be given to the elements of the structure for teaching as a component of the education system
in order to find places where productivity should be improved. Regarding the education support
services, due consideration should be given to whether it is better to provide the services
within the education system or to use qualified external services.
We conclude that a focus on productivity can and should result in improving the operationof education and the education system.

O agrupamento dos BRICS, além de favorecer a concertação política e econômica entre seus membros, funciona – para a China – como uma das plataformas para sua expansão global de maneira assertiva, mas menos impactante. Funciona, portanto, como instrumento catalizador de ganhos em legitimidade, poder, influência e, sobretudo, respeitabilidade. Além de promover uma melhor inserção entre demais países em desenvolvimento.

The architecture of global financial governance has recently been complemented by emerging economies' efforts to coordinate policies, as exemplified by new coalitions of states and a new set of non-Western international institutions. BRICS, in its turn, has made a significant contribution in this direction by establishing the New Development Bank-an alternative to traditional mechanisms of financing development projects with an emphasis on sustainability. As a representative of the growing cooperation of the BRICS countries in recent decades, the NDB highlights most of the group's views on financial governance. This paper applies a qualitative/ analytical approach to the BRICS and NDB Communiqués and practices in order to demonstrate how the bank has managed to successfully institutionalize the group's discourse over time.

An online summit of the BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) was held on November 17. It was already the 12th meeting of this format, this time chaired by Moscow. Xi Jinping once again presented the Chinese vision of world order, calling for cooperation and maintaining multilateralism.

In a moment of great global uncertainty, the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) are increasing their standing worldwide. Despite several areas that still undermine their credibility on the world stage and which make them appear to seem irrelevant as a group in the view of some scholars, we try to analyze and evaluate if they are really accountable as a group and what impact they could have on global governance and, in general, on the global order. We depart from previous research accomplishments and, following certain classical theories of International Relations such as those of Critical and Dependence, we consider three aspects of the BRICS growth that could influence the current international framework: 1) the emergence of institutions outside the Bretton Woods system; 2) an interest in improving their “soft power” (for example, climate change may play a decisive role here); 3) the growth of their presence in different parts of the world which have so far experienced a subordinated or marginal role. The paper considers both the limitations of and the potential for BRICS countries in the reshaping of the international framework. Moreover, we provide some interpretations to the current situation, especially in light of the prospective impact that COVID-19 may have on these three fields.

La irrupción de los BRICS en el escenario internacional no fue inesperada. Los pasos acelerados hacia el desarrollo que se encontraban dando naciones tradicionalmente relegadas o situadas dentro de la llamada periferia mundial no constituían una novedad para los analistas a fines de la primera década del Siglo XXI. La performance de éstos súbitamente se encontró en la primera plana de los asuntos globales cuando las regiones centrales del poder mundial se toparon con la crisis economica-financiera del año 2008. Ante la contracción del mercado global y sus principales animadores, fueron las economías emergentes quienes aportaron la mayor cuota al crecimiento de la economía global y en el sostenimiento de la demanda, alterando en el proceso la dirección tradicional de los flujos de capital de centro a periferia. De tal forma, quedó en evidencia que el orden tradicional del poder mundial ya no mostraba las mismas características ni daba las mismas respuestas de antaño, especialmente en lo relativo a garantizar "bienes públicos globales" ante la crisis; o bien se encontraba en plena transición hacia una nueva configuración ("multipolar", "interpolar", etc.) en la cual los estados "emergentes" estarían llamados a ocupar un rol de mayor relevancia. Una serie de transformaciones significativas dan apoyo factual a la incidencia de los BRICS. La geografía del poder se modificó con la anuencia de las economías emergentes: la dinámica de las relaciones económicas globales pasó del eje Atlántico Norte (Estados Unidos-Europa) al Asia Pacífico...

The emerging powers of this century seem to be going through a rough moment. The BRICS are going through the challenge that will determine their status as emerging powers or will they transform in ‘submerging powers’. Should they put their homes in order to go out and pay?

1. The Brasilia Declaration is disappointing for a number of reasons related to the nature and working of the coalition and to the international political and economic climate. In essence, it does not add much to what has already been said in 2018, merely reiterating the commitments of the BRICS – as a group and individually taken – already stated in the Johannesburg Declaration.

Both advocates and opponents of retrenchment have treated it as an undesirable, last‐ditch strategy for states that have already experienced severe decline. This article presents a formal model that identifies an unrecognized benefit of retrenchment: It can provide declining states with valuable information about rising states' future intentions. By removing constraints over the behavior of rising states in a particular region, a declining state can induce hostile risers to attempt revision of the regional order. This, in turn, makes a riser's cooperative behavior more credible as a signal of benign intentions, allowing the decliner to oppose hostile types while accommodating benign ones. In contrast to the existing focus on retrenchment as a desperate strategy taken from a position of weakness, this article suggests that the informational benefits of retrenchment are greatest when it is undertaken early, from a position of strength.

In recent years, the emerging economies of the world, particularly those of the BRICS countries, have attracted increasing attention for their contribution to the growth of the global economy. These countries have initiated significant reforms within financial institutions and financial markets that are vital to the expansion of the financial sector and thus to the countries’ economic growth. In this context, this study aims to determine whether the development of the financial system in these economies is the cause for their growth. To measure the financial system development, the study constructs three broad-based indices—the financial institution development index, financial market development index, and financial system development index—for each economy using principal component analysis, with the factors of depth, efficiency, and stability of financial institutions and financial markets as variables. In addition, we use the Toda–Yamamoto causality test to conduct this exercise for the period 1996–2016. The results of the study reveal that there is no uniformity in finance and growth causality among the BRICS countries.

Öz
Soğuk Savaş sonrası dünya siyasi ve ekonomi yönetiminde önemli değişimler yaşanmıştır. Özellikle küresel jeopolitiğin ağırlık merkezinin Asya-Pasifik'e kaymakta olduğu bir süreçte BRICS oluşumu değişen dünya ekonomik ve siyasi yapısına paralel olarak etkisini artırma arayışını sürdürmektedir. Bu süreçte ABD tarafından oluşturulan ekonomik sistemin yine ABD eliyle yıpratılması BRICS'in öneminin daha fazla artmasını sağlarken, yıllardan beri devam eden BRICS ülkelerinin ekonomik olarak yükselişi yeni uluslararası finansal kuruluşların kurulmasına yol açmaktadır. Böylesi bir ortamda BRICS tarzı daha kompakt yapılar küresel yönetişimin etkisiz kaldığı alanları doldurmaya çalışmaktadır. 2018 BRICS zirvesi bu olgunun önemli bir göstergesi olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Batı ülkeleri ile ilişkilerinde yeni bir alan açmak isteyen Türkiye ekonomik ve siyasi alternatiflerini çeşitlendirmek istemektedir. Bu makale yeni dünya düzeninde BRICS oluşumunu, dünya ekonomik ve siyasi sistemine etkisi, gelişmekte olan ülkeler açısından anlamı ve Türkiye'nin BRICS ile kurmaya çalıştığı ilişkiyi incelemektedir.
Abstract
There have been significant changes in world political and economic management in the Post-Cold War period. Especially in a process where the center of gravity of global geopolitics is shifting to Asia-Pacific, BRICS continues to seek to increase its impact in parallel with the changing world economic and political structure. In this process, the deterioration of the US-led economic system by the US itself has increased the importance of the BRICS. The economic growth of BRICS countries for years also paves the way for the establishment of new international financial institutions. In such an economic environment, BRICS-style compact structures try to fill areas where global governance is ineffective. 2018 BRICS Summit is a significant indicator of this phenomenon. Turkey, a country aims to open a new field in its relations with Western countries, wants to diversify its economic and political alternatives. This study examines the BRICS formation of the new world order, its effect on the world economic and political system, its importance for the developing countries, and Turkey's attempts to establish a relationship with BRICS.

Os anos 2000 são marcados por um novo ímpeto de alinhamento ao Sul na Política Externa Brasileira, tendo em vista a ascensão de potências emergentes, o declínio relativo dos Estados Unidos e a chamada estratégia de autonomia pela diversificação. Nesse período, o Brasil passa a se engajar – por vezes enquanto empreendedor político - em estratégias Cooperação Sul-Sul originais, notadamente o IBAS e o BRICS, os quais buscam, diferentemente do que era observado no passado, incluir em um mesmo agrupamento diversas agendas cooperação intra e extrabloco. Essas iniciativas unem, em um mesmo ambiente de diálogo, um tripé de cooperação ao qual denominou-se estratégia de cooperação Sul-Sul em múltiplas frentes e que compreende: coordenação política extrabloco, cooperação setorial e cooperação para o desenvolvimento com terceiros. A teoria da ação coletiva considera as dificuldades de coordenação e cooperação entre países diversos e agendas variadas; mas, em contraponto, o trabalho procurou demonstrar como isso ocorre na prática da política externa brasileira, por meio da estratégia de cooperação em múltiplas frentes. O referido modelo de cooperação tem sido uma grande aposta da estratégia internacional brasileira, a fim de reforçar suas posições de potência emergente e liderança no Sul Global, de modo que consiste, então, em objeto importante de análises acadêmicas que possam contextualizar e informar o engajamento político brasileiro.
Palavras-chave: Política Externa Brasileira, IBAS, BRICS, Cooperação Sul-Sul.

In their 75 years of existence, the twin institutions born at the Bretton Woods Conference have undergone adaptation and transformation in response to the evolution of the world economy and the challenges it has posed to them. More recently, three changes in the international order have imposed a new round of challenges to those institutions: the emergence of new geo-economic poles; the prominence of nationalist policies in relation to multilateralism; and fragmentation in the system of plurinational institutions.

The Formation of the BRICS and Its Implication for the United States: Emerging Together, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, 133 pp. By MARK E. SCHAEFER, JOHN G. POFFENBARGER.

Since the formation of the BRICs as a grouping emerged when the foreign ministers of the four countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China -- met in New York in 2006, much ink has been spilled by a wide range of IR theorists, analysts regarding the rapidly increasing influence of the grouping on the global stage and the related question of whether the coalition is a potential challenge to the US-led liberal international order (LIO). Some have argued that the grouping offers a competing logic, seeking to undermine the foundational norms rules and values of the existing international order. Some others have chosen a more skeptical approach regarding the coalition’s capacity to act as a cohesive bloc with ultimate goal of achieving a vision of a multipolar world that is no longer dominated by Washington. Regardless of the difference of opinion, the big question – does BRICS exist as a counterweight and balancer of the US? -- continues to fill the pages of many publications, including Mark E. Schaefer and John G. Poffenbarger’s relatively new book The Formation of the BRICS and Its Implication for the United States: Emerging Together.