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There are many who find the appeal of a multipolar world intoxicating but they refuse to see the hangover coming their way. Irrespective of any legitimate grievance here are some thoughts for the BRICS pep rally section.

1. What would global commerce be like without the US Navy controlling the oceans? Add in the support by the British and do they really not see what is ahead of them????

2. Language and currency drive our world of 2023. What would happen when the Dollar is not the standard for commerce? What currency can boast of returns and stability of the Dollar? Think, Exchange Rates on steroids.

3. What would the BRICS Alliance mean for driving our world to World War III? Forming an alliance to promote commerce is one thing but BRICS is forming because of hatred of the USA. How will those founding members of BRICS stay aligned with no truly common goal other than hating America?

India is all about national interest, as it should be so how will they stay in the alliance????

Communist China is a top-heavy dictatorship that due to demographics is headed to a calamitous end and will try to take the world down too.

Russia is well, Russia. They cannot win what is basically a regional conflict in their backyard but they want to lead a global alliance on economic growth????

Brazil is sitting on more potential to leap forward than any nation but their Leftist side will destroy any path to develop real success and drive it into a crash.

We will see.

There will be a BRICS summit next month, in South Africa. The aim is still the same, to promote peace, security, development and cooperation. Who wouldn't want this?

Sorry mate do you even know what the “left” is? Most of the OECD are socialist democracies. Even the US has programs that are socialist: e.g.: social security.

What all the BRICS Countries have in common is they are authority non-democratic approach - even India is in that league. Something that a certain candidate in your country likes.

The sheer ignorance of Trump is astounding still yet. Why not get the facts on the policies done by Trump from 2017-21 before such sheer stupid comments are made about him????

Cooperation run by dictatorships are what kind of cooperation?? Does anyone here or globally think the Internet would exist with communist China originating and running it? If you do then please present the case for them running digital currency too????

BRICS. Well, Brazil has issues. Economy is OK at the moment, but it still has some economic problems.

Russia has issues, economically, for a bunch of reasons.

India has issues. 2/3 of their people are still technically in poverty, and it is still a developing state.

China may or may not be in good economic shape -- something that analysts seem to vary on.

South Africa -- although I have acquaintances there -- it's turning into a corrupt, failed state. They can't even keep the lights on.

None of these countries can presently replace the US, UK, EU, and Commonwealth countries. Not now, anyway.

And no, not "all" the BRICS countries are run by despots. South Africa has free and fair elections. So does Brazil. Brazils present president is anything but a despot, and he is a leftist. And India's leader may be a conservative, but India has free and fair elections. It's the largest democracy, population-wise, in the world.

Only 5 countries currently in BRICS, but already they hold over 40% of the world's population. For certain, they cannot be ignored. Some interesting stats here if you choose to believe:

https://www.statista.com/topics/1393/bric-countries/#topicOverview

The fact they hold so much of the world's population means nothing. The UK, a small island nation off the coast of Europe was able to wrest control of nearly half the world, including the second most populous region -- India, all in the 18th and 19th Centuries, with 18th and 19th Century technology.

One in 5 humans has been Chinese for the past century, and one in 5 humans has been Indian for the same amount of time. That doesn't mean they can wield the power they wish to wield. It takes more than just population to exert power in geopolitics.

And if you're talking pure population growth, Africa, which is the fastest growing continent, is projected to grow by over a billion people by 2050. Yet most African countries still operate as one party states in various stages of internal and external disarray.

Russia and China have a long and difficult history of being at odds with each other, and both are entering population decline. China and India have almost gone to war over their border regions in the Himalayas, and they have had shooting skirmishes in the recent past. So at least three of the BRICS countries have nearly come to blows over territory and other conflicts. South Africa, as I've said, is a modernized, near-Western country but they can't keep the lights on. Rolling blackouts (i.e. "Load shedding" is a common thing there. They have nearly 30% unemployment. They have a ton of natural resources, but can't wield power anywhere but regionally.

That leaves Brazil. Does Brazil inspire confidence in the modern world? They can't project power, either monetarily or militarily.

The BRICS nations' idea of an alternative monetary currency to the dollar is a pipedream. The only currency that could, and may, replace the dollar is the Euro, but I don't see that happening in the near future.

I don't think it means nothing. Very much the contrary. More countries are lining up to join BRICS. BRICS has momentum, much more than the G7. There will be an alternative to fiat money, because fiat money makes no sense, never did. Unless the U.S. dollar returns to being gold-backed, which is also a possibility. I like American people a whole lot. Been to the States countless times. But there exists a mindset to challenge the U.S. dollar that isn't going away anytime soon. And besides, Americans love competition.

Good point on competition but BRICS is just a smoke-screen to attempt to subvert the established commerce order. None of those nations can be taken seriously as a leader for true global commerce. So, how will BRICS play out???

Even NATO, worthless as it is, at least can claim to be based on a founding grounded in shared values versus just being against something. BRICS has an alliance of nations that have ZERO shared values and exists just to be against the dollar. No vision for future growth. It will flame out in time even if it has a legitimate concern for global currency issues.

And yes, fiat is insane, let's hope the momentum for the Gold Standard continues and that standard returns.

Anyone still thinking the BRICS house is not for real?

Turkey has stated they would like to join the BRICS alliance. This is causing quite a stir in European capitals. If Turkey teams up with BRICS, they would become I believe the first NATO ally to join the bloc. BRICS already represents a significant shift in global power dynamics, and some commentators see this growing alliance as likely dominating the global economy in the coming decades. BRICS is not a military alliance like NATO, they are mostly an economic one, and certainly worth keeping an eye on.

Since the Petro-Dollar agreement expired about a month ago I've been roughly keeping track of the BRICS challenge, because there have been some alarmists saying it's the end of the dollar, and BRICS will fill the void.

So far, I'm not seeing any way they can replace the Dollar or the Euro as the chief trading currencies in the developed world. China is an economic powerhouse, but they are scaling back on some of their Belt and Road Initiative projects because the returns on their investment aren't happening. Obviously, infrastructure takes time to give a decent ROI, but at the same time, the pullback of funding on some of these projects doesn't make it look like China will replace the US/UK/EU anytime soon.

South Africa just had an election, the results of which look promising -- the ANC is starting to lose their large majority, and it looks like they may have a coalition government, and maybe new ideas will be present in their governance. And -- hopefully -- less corruption.

That said, BRICS may take a few more years to actually present an alternative to the US/UK/EU dominance of world trade and economy.

The key to undermining BRICS lies in 🇺🇲 building better relationships with Brazil and India. Do that and BRICS will go away.

Good point. Also South Africa, as they do have a lot of valuable minerals, and there are some similarities in our histories.

And what if BRICS is the new NATO? But, an economic alliance instead of a military one. Military will still and always exist, but as a species if we are to evolve to a next level, would it not be welcome to try out a different philosophical approach, based on trust, cooperation, and multipolarity? Where has hegemony gotten us after all? Are we better of as humanity than 100 years ago? So, change is definitely in the air, and as is said, nothing can stop a good idea when its time has come. I can't say that BRICS will be all sunshine and roses, but its underlying zeitgeist seems generally more positive than what alliances like NATO or the UN seem to have to offer these days. And BRICS is snowballing.

It won't last as Russia and China being part of it = fail. Now it may splinter with Brazil and India leading a new alliance.

Oh I'd be surprised but time will tell.

Despite the issues that we see in the world today -- war in Ukraine, the political changes in the EU, BRICS, China's rise, etc., according to some studies this is the best time in the world's history to be alive. Less people in the world starving, food production -- generally -- matches the needs worldwide (with some exceptions where idiot governments decide to punish the farmers), modern medicine has a greater reach than it has since humanity developed -- and despite the number of wars, there is more peace throughout more countries.

It's just with the information overload we get -- largely thanks to what's left of the mass media, and the internet -- we tend to see the darker side of existence rather than the more positive one.

As for BRICS, I still feel the same way I did in my first post. It's an economic alliance with strategic, military underpinnings, and at best it might turn into a 'Second World' system, with the EU, US, UK & Commonwealth being the 'First World' system; at worst, it will be similar to alliances that got the world into WW1. There is nothing wrong with economic cooperation -- that's what the EU started out being, a Common Market. Here in North America we have NAFTA. There was going to be a TPPA (Trans Pacific economic alliance) but that didn't get past the planning stages.

Most such alliances usually end up military in nature eventually, as happened with the EU. Although BRICS may add a few countries, there are too many divergent geopolitical interests for it to replace the existing order -- at least for another 50 years. China's goals aren't the same as Russia's, and neither's goals are the same as India's, geopolitically.

I guess it's a wait and see game. It could be good for the world in some respects, not so good with others. Right now it reminds me of the "Non-Aligned Nations" organization, and some others -- the OAU (now the African Union), OAS, etc., organizations that are more similar to the UN in bent than NATO.