Brazil and the other BRICS

Stating the obvious, the world is changing, both in terms of politics and economics. The crises we face today impact how the world will look in the future. There is a movement away from the modern concepts of countries to post-modern views where power is relegated to non-governmental organizations. The centers of power are also very fluid, while the US is the dominant military power and probably will remain so for so time, simply because of its current stockpile of weapons and technology; it's military is dependent on the well-being of the countries economy. Economics dictates policy or at least it should. So how is economics changing the global perspective? This brings us to the BRICS.

BRICS is defined as a set of countries that, through their growing economies, are changing the centers of economic dominance. These are Brazil, Russia, India, China and added sometime later South Africa, B-R-I-C-S. I find that although grouping these countries together is an interesting concept, they are certainly in different leagues and probably make no sense being grouped together. India and China are in a league of their own. Each with over 1 billion people and large land mass, they in no way resemble the other countries. Russia is problematic. Extremely large land mass, a declining population and an economy highly dependent on commodities such as oil and gas, Russia has a multitude of social and economic infrastructure problems it needs to deal with. And South Africa is still evolving, more on that in a later blog. That brings us to Brazil.

I, for whatever reason, am highly optimistic about the rise of Brazil as an economic power. Clearly Brazil is blessed with natural resources. A large land mass and a large diverse population make Brazil a potential for sustained economic growth. But there is another factor that I think adds to Brazil's potential. Economics drives politics and politics drives economics. Both are linked and both play a role in defining success. Along with that is the nature of relationships a country can develop out sided it's own boundaries. For Brazil it is a common language that it shares with several other counties, specifically Portugal, Angola and Mozambique.

Angola and Mozambique are also blessed with natural resources and while Portugal does not have the scale of the other countries, it does provide a gateway into the EU. Just think of a greeter common bond then language, add to that religion. In the English-speaking world, the links between the UK, US, Canada and Australia are very strong. These links invite a strong sense of cooperation. There are other examples of language commonality that I will not dwell on but are obvious.

Brazil being the largest of these economies can become a major power by cultivating relationships with these countries. Not only a common economic zone, but maybe something akin to OPEC where power is shared among them. Plus from an interesting geopolitical perspective, a grouping such as this would be the first in the southern hemisphere.

We are moving quickly into a post-modern world where notions of country and nation and state are changing drastically. Countries rich with potential such as Brazil can take advantage of this changing world and become major players in the world arena.