August 25: From Berlin to BRICS - Building geopolitical walls

In which, the BRICS try to build back better, Biden gets a foreign policy win, but the economic data still looks shaky, and the Republicans debate about where to go sans Trump.

From Berlin to BRICS: Building geopolitical walls

Somehow, somehow, I was gonna get that pun in there.

The BRICS summit in South Africa ended this week with member countries still needing to work out some of details around forging strong economic ties and cooperation, but the bigger headline came with the announcement of six new countries to the group , which likely means a rebrand will be comings soon (BRICS-6, anyone?).Those six countries are Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Argentina. The expansion into the Middle East is no surprise at all given the Biden administration's mishandling of Saudi relations, the same goes for Ethiopia. Argentina is a bit of a surprise, and I wonder what the election outcome in that country may mean for this relationship.

What is plain, though, is that there is an audience looking for alternative structures outside the “liberal international order” in which to do business. In one sense, this is America and Europe’s penchant for economic warfare and cultural imperialism catching up with them. In another sense, this is also a move on the part of the BRICS to offset a foundering Chinese economy. Even with the addition of the new countries, the comparative economic size of the BRICS is far below that of the G-7 or the US-EU-Japan nexus. A weakening China only opens that gap further.

In the short term, this expanded group gives Russia and China strategic economic depth, but it doesn’t fix their systemic economic issues.