The Implications of Brics to Global Governance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.68050/JAMS.2026.703Keywords:
BRICS expansion, Western-led global governance, multipolarity, New Development Bank, de-dollarisation, Global South, multiplex world orderAbstract
This study examined the implications of BRICS for global governance. It analysed the drivers of BRICS formation, the effects of its emergence and enlargement, the implications for established international institutions, and the alternatives the bloc presents in a shifting world order. A qualitative descriptive design was used. Secondary sources were identified through named databases and official repositories, screened against stated inclusion rules, and read through a question-led content analysis that separates documented institutional facts from interpretive claims. The findings show that BRICS formation was propelled by the 2001 Goldman Sachs framing of rising economies, the 2008 global financial crisis, dissatisfaction with Western-dominated institutions, and a shared quest for multipolarity, sovereignty and strategic autonomy. Emergence and expansion have fostered intra-BRICS trade, a parallel development bank and a contingent reserve framework, South–South cooperation, geopolitical hedging and normative contestation. These developments put pressure on the practical monopoly of the Bretton Woods institutions and complicate Western agenda-setting. They do not, on the evidence reviewed, amount to financial independence or a completed shift away from the dollar. The New Development Bank is an established multilateral development bank whose membership now extends beyond the founding five. The Contingent Reserve Arrangement is a dollar swap framework with unequal contributions, an IMF-linked access rule and no recorded drawdown. Local-currency settlement has grown in selected corridors, while the dollar still accounts for well over half of allocated foreign-exchange reserves. Internal asymmetries and consensus rules further limit collective action. BRICS still signals the decline of uncontested unipolar direction, but the resulting order is negotiated and incomplete. The study recommends deeper, evidence-based engagement with BRICS facilities, reform of Western-led bodies, and further comparative research that keeps institutional design distinct from geopolitical inference.
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