Global Governance, Institutions and the BRICS

Before one ventures into discussing whether BRICS can emerge as a powerful coalition to influence global governance, it is pertinent to understand and appreciate a comprehensive sense of global governance. Further, the various debates and discussions surrounding the question of global governance has led to new contestations. The growing influence of non-state actors and emergence of new powers like India and China have added new dimensions in influencing new outcomes in global governance. Against this backdrop, emergence of BRICS as a potent political coalition advocating for redesigning institutional outcomes reflecting new set of political values is noteworthy. However, current scholarship is divided on the role of BRICS in global governance. This article examines how the BRICS leadership at various for a like the G 20 in general and through its nine annual summits in particular has articulated its aspirations to engineer institutional mechanisms reflective of the current realities of the international system. A closer examination of the annual BRICS summits in the last nine years are ample proof of their urge to fashion a more just and equitable global governance in which they will be able to give ‘voice to their values’.