MOSCOW, January 28. /TASS/. Seeing BRICS as a threat to their dominance, Western countries and the United States in particular are openly trying to stifle the burgeoning association, representing the main external threat to the group, reads an expert report titled "The Future of BRICS," prepared by the Knowledge Diplomacy Center of the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) with the participation of the New Era Center for the Development of Humanitarian Technologies, on a state assignment from the Russian Ministry of Education and Science. The report was obtained by TASS.
Among the external challenges facing BRICS, the report, as TASS notes, highlights "targeted containment and pressure from the collective West." "Experts cite the hostility of the United States and its allies as the main external challenge, as they see the success of BRICS as a threat to their hegemony. This is reflected in sanctions pressure, attempts to create divisions within the group, and an information campaign to discredit it as an 'anti-Western' bloc," the report reads.
Analysts also point to the structural dominance of Western financial institutions as a problem. "The global dominance of the dollar and existing financial systems (IMF, World Bank) creates practical difficulties for the creation and scaling of alternative BRICS mechanisms, such as the New Development Bank (NDB) or settlements in national currencies. At the same time, there is a strong trend toward de-dollarization and the desire to strengthen national currencies, supported by a number of BRICS member countries," the report states.
One of the contributors to the survey, Iranian political scientist Rouhollah Modabber believes that the Anglo-Saxon countries, including the United States' perception of BRICS influence as a threat stems from the fact that Western powers have never shown a willingness to "allow the creation and growth of independent institutions outside their sphere of unilateral dominance." "Threats from the US, including potential tariffs on BRICS, fit into this context," he explained.
Overcoming difficulties
First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs Vladimir Dzhabarov, in turn, noted that to overcome the problems described, it is necessary to convince the US that BRICS was not created as a tool against them, but as a new structure for uniting nations. "The main problem is the Americans' attempt to 'strangle' BRICS. Remember, at a certain point they said that BRICS countries that buy Russian oil, for example, or liquefied natural gas would be punished. This shouldn't happen. And, by the way, India itself has shown that such threats usually don't have serious consequences, because a country that is confident in itself and its economy will easily overcome them. As soon as the Americans stop seeing BRICS as a serious threat to their global hegemony, I think this challenge will be overcome," he said.
Rasigan Maharajh, Director General of the Institute of Economic Research at the Tshwane University of Technology and a member of the South African Academy of Sciences, added that to overcome these threats, it is also important to strengthen relations between BRICS members and partners, protecting them from attacks from a united West, but "without becoming anti-Western in our orientation."
Internal problems
Analysts cite economic, political, and cultural heterogeneity, geopolitical contradictions and conflicts between key members, and the weakness of institutional mechanisms as the main internal challenges facing BRICS. Furthermore, some experts point out that not all members are prepared to abandon deep integration into Western economic and financial systems.
Maharajh emphasized that, against this backdrop, the key internal challenge for BRICS is maintaining harmony among its members and recognizing the diversity of their viewpoints. Political scientist and expert at the Center for Middle East Studies, Farhad Ibragimov, noted that the reason for these problems lies in the fact that the understanding of how to implement and shape a "non-Western" economic model has not yet been fully developed. "Not all BRICS countries believe that it is possible to shrug off economic dependence on the West. This is a major problem. We don’t fully know how to implement polycentricity in the system of international economic relations," he noted. The expert added that many in the world also believe that Western countries will supposedly become more prudent over time. "Some think, including in Russia, that we should return to the SWIFT idea. I believe that one can hope for anything, even for life to appear on Mars. I am still a proponent of the idea that if you're going to do something, you should see it through to the end," Ibragimov stated.