Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa represent almost 18 per cent of the world economy, with their contribution to world growth having already exceeded 50 per cent. But what does the emergence of the BRICS mean for global politics? Andrew Cooper discusses the BRICS as a concept and its practice in global politics.

• 1: Framing the BRICS


• 2: A contested invention: The BRIC, BRICs, and the BRICS


• 3: A historical departure


• 4: Hanging together


• 5: Building the new development bank


• 6: BRICS as the recognition of states, not societies


• 7: The staying power of the BRICS


• Further Reading


• Index

Andrew F. Cooper is Professor at the Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Department of Political Science, University of Waterloo, Canada. He is the Director for the Centre for Studies on Rapid Global Change, University of Waterloo; Associate Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Duisburg, Germany; and Associate Research Fellow-UNU CRIS (Institute on Comparative Regional Integration), Bruges, Belgium. His books include The Group of Twenty (G20) (Routledge, 2013)