Brazil and BRICS Multilateralism à la Carte: From Bilateralism to Community Interest
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Author | Karin Costa Vazquez |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12969 |
Brazil and BRICS Multilateralism
a la Carte:
From Bilateralism to Community Interest
Karin Costa Vazquez
Fudan University, and
Jindal Global University, O.P
Abstract
As BRICS advances into its second decade of existence, it transitions from a multilateral alignment to bilateral arrangements
among the five members. This ‘bi-lateralization’of BRICS expands the ‘menu’of the BRICS ‘multilateralism
a la carte’by allow-
ing members to limit cooperation when their interests diverge and to benefit from collective action through BRICS when their
interests converge. This paper argues that, from the standpoint of countries like Brazil, the India–China border dispute and
broader competition in the Indo-Pacific demonstrate the ‘bi-lateralization’of intra-BRICS relations as they thwart the develop-
ment of a common narrative on issues like global health, security and trade. Contrarily, the bi-lateralization of BRICS also gives
members more flexibility as they manage various domestic and international challenges, which is crucial for the grouping’s
survival. The experience of the BRICS-led New Development Bank (NDB) illustrates how the five countries can still cooperate
as a coalition in pursuit of common objectives such as sustainable development and infrastructure. The lack of robust mecha-
nisms to realize these objectives, however, raises questions about NDB’s capacity to help BRICS to cooperate more like a com-
munity.
BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa) is under
pressure to lead international responses to emerging global
challenges. Global summits can no longer claim legitimacy
and inclusiveness without inviting BRICS countries, nor can
major global agendas such as the 2030 Agenda for Sustain-
able Development and its Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) be achieved without BRICS stewardship (Renwick and
Gu 2020). The stagnation of the Russian and South African
economies and Brazil’s economic and political crisis, aggra-
vated by the COVID-19 pandemic, however, have stalled
BRICS countries’attempts to play a significant role on the
global stage. The current India–China border standoff and
broader competition in the Indo-Pacific further challenge
the balance within the grouping (Bajpai et al., 2016) at a
time when the very changes in global affairs raise questions
about the effectiveness of BRICS as a facilitator of alternative
voices in global governance.
The rise of BRICS coincided with the emergence of the
concept of ‘multilateralism
a la carte’,first employed in 2001
to explain George W. Bush’s abandonment of high-profile
international treaties not as a unilateralist or isolationist
measure but rather a ‘pick and choose’approach based on
national interests (Stewart, 2015). Since then, the concept
has been used more broadly to denote a general prefer-
ence, including by emerging economies, for more flexible,
fluid, and informal models of global governance that priori-
tize narrower coalitions over negotiations within ‘standing,
formal, treaty-based bodies with universal membership’(Ste-
wart, 2015 , 2017). The ‘
a la carte’approach has also been
discussed in the World Trade Organizations (WTO) context
as a means of maintaining the vitality of trade multilateral-
ism in the 21st century (Hoekman and Mavroidis, 2015;
Huang, 2011).
In the case of BRICS, the ‘multilateralism
a la carte’is
described by Brutsch and Papa (2013) as a function of a
‘coalition-community continuum’. The five countries adjust
their strategic objectives and policy priorities according to
one end of the continuum. At the ‘coalition’end, BRICS
countries would emphasize their membership to
strengthen individual negotiation positions and define
coalition profiles to allow them to collectively challenge
powerful states. Their joint statements ‘minimize the risk
that diverging interests and defections could compromise
coalition cohesion’and ensure that BRICS framework ‘does
not interfere with members’own objectives’(Brutsch and
Papa, 2013, p. 308). At the ‘community’end, ‘the prospect
of shared opportunities or threats and the emergence of
shared norms and narratives would encourage BRICS
countries, individually, to focus on collective aspirations
and to make sacrifices to rise together’(Brutsch and Papa,
2013, p. 309). BRICS countries could change the percep-
tions of their partners, of themselves, and of the nature
of their endeavour by improving individual payoffs
through coordinated bargaining. Through repetitive inter-
actions, shared meanings and collective identities would
be forged turning coalitions into imagined communities
(Brutsch and Papa, 2013).
In its first decade of existence, BRICS gravitated between
the two ends of the ‘coalition-community continuum’. Con-
cerns about the US global economic leadership and the
©2021 Durham University and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.Global Policy (2021) 12:4 doi: 10.1111/1758-5899.12969
Global Policy Volume 12 . Issue 4 . September 2021
534
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