India is hosting the BRICS Leaders’ Summit on September 12-13, bringing together leaders from a coalition of emerging economies that has grown to include 11 member nations. The gathering takes place amid ongoing tensions stemming from the US and Israel’s military operations against Iran, a BRICS member since 2024. The United Arab Emirates, also a recent member, finds itself on opposing sides of the conflict from Iran, presenting a significant challenge to the bloc’s ability to forge unified positions on major geopolitical issues.
The BRICS coalition, which originally consisted of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, was established to create an alternative power center in global affairs and challenge Western-dominated international institutions. Since its inception, the bloc has expanded to include Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Indonesia. While analysts acknowledge that BRICS has contributed to a more multipolar world order and provided Global South nations with greater economic alternatives and bargaining power, the organization has struggled to develop coherent collective positions on foreign policy and security matters.
According to analysts, the bloc’s economic scale is substantial, representing nearly half the world’s population, 40 percent of global output in purchasing power terms, and approximately a quarter of world trade. However, its ability to leverage this economic weight collectively remains limited. The New Development Bank, created by BRICS as an alternative to Western-led financial institutions, has approved approximately $39 billion in funding by the end of 2024—a modest figure compared to World Bank commitments—and continues to rely heavily on dollar-denominated financing.
Scholars and analysts argue that measuring BRICS success by its capacity to replace Western institutions may be misguided. Rather, the bloc’s primary value lies in making Western dominance more difficult to exercise and providing developing nations with platforms to express their interests outside traditional Western-led frameworks. The organization emerged from the 2008 financial crisis and represents developing nations’ efforts to pursue independent development agendas and secure greater influence over global economic institutions they perceive as Western-dominated.
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