LIKE THEiPod and MySpace, theBRICSbloc is a product of the benign optimism of the 2000s. In 2001 Goldman Sachs coined the acronymBRICin a paper about the economic potential of Brazil, Russia, India and China. The quartet ran with the idea, holding its first summit in 2009. A year later South Africa was invited to join. Some analysts feared theBRICSmight soon start to rival theG7,but the grouping quickly lost momentum. The non-AsianBRICSeconomies stagnated in the 2010s. At summits the bloc would issue garbled communiqués about the perfidious West—which the perfidious West would promptly ignore. TheBRICSlooked dead.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Is a bigger party a better one?”
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