BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) is a coalition of regional and superpowers reportedly proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.They are also called New Wave Countries by media. The coalition would encompass over forty percent of the world's population and hold a combined GDP [PPP] of 12.14 trillion international dollars. On almost every scale, it would be the largest entity on the global stage. The idea was proposed because of growing concerns regarding the domination of the United States and the European Union over the world economy and political scene. As all the member economies have experienced enormous growth in the past few years, and are expected to continue on this path, the coalition will likely grow to be a larger threat to Trans-Atlantic economic interests.
History
BRIC, however, is not simply a product of discontent over American power. Instead, BRIC is a logical extension of globalization. In this process, commodities, work, technology, and companies have diffused outward from the United States across the world. Following the end of the Cold War or even before, the governments comprising BRIC all initiated economic or political reforms to allow their countries to enter the world economy. In order to compete, these countries have simultaneously stressed education, foreign investment, domestic consumption, and domestic entrepreneurship. As a result, even without BRIC the political coalition or alliance, the countries that make up BRIC would still be very similar economically with very similar levels of development, potential, and problems.
Current Issues
What extends BRIC into the realm of political alliance, however, is not this common economic history or the common opportunities of globalization, but the effects that globalization and the economic development that globalization initiated (i.e. a wealthier population) combined with unpopular American or European actions on the world scene. The wealth effect of globalization and the education within BRIC which has allowed it has produced governments within BRIC that are far more stable and powerful than those which came before. Brazil, China, India, and Russia are all ruled by leaders or bureacracies that are far more self-confident than at any other time in recent history. Unilateral actions on the part of the United States, therefore, are not met by acquiescence, but by opposition. Therefore, Cuba and Venezuela, shunned by the United States, are now embraced by BRIC. The countries of BRIC, however, do not want war. They do not want territory. What they want is an end to their poverty, an end to their humiliation, and an end to the global and unilateral leadership of the United States.