BRIC-à-Brac
Institutional arrangements are responsible for the policy agenda that gets shoved through the policy window, and so too will they play a critical role in shaping the future geography of trade. The threads of vested interests woven into the fabric of international trade will determine both its strength/ fragility and design (perhaps wharped by protectionist or mercantilist tendencies or influenced/ forced into harmony by the weaver (and who would that be?)). BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) is the latest institutional formation to join the family of the G(roup)s and how their influence will play out in the international arena depends much on their ability to compensate for one another’s deficiencies and compromise on their private agendas.
Goldman Sachs’ take on BRIC (can’t possibly leave out Jim O’Neill in this blog): http://www2.goldmansachs.com/ideas/brics/index.html
On BRIC’s incompatibility: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=5011 , http://www.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idUSLE11928120090614?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0
On BRIC’s multipolar world order: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6514737.ece
On BRIC’s unease with the dollar: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8101154.stm
On India’s capitalists: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2008/09/080905_desert_capitalists_one.shtml
On China in Africa: http://www2.lse.ac.uk/LSEMagazine/pdf/Summer%202009/RaisingTheRedLantern.pdf
