The Brics, Us Decline and Global Transformations

The author examines the rise of the BRICs and the supposed decline of the United States. Focusing on the boom years from 1992 to 2007, and the crisis years after 2008, he argues that there are limits to the rise of the former and that the extent of US decline has been greatly exaggerated, and that there are therefore good reasons to question the view that there has been an international transformation. The book particularly focuses on how the boom years facilitated the rise of the BRICs, and how this reinforced US power, and that recovery in the global South after the financial crisis is now running out of steam. While this might be a problem for the United States, it is a problem for BRIC countries as well. Perhaps the most important development in the international order in recent years is actually the rise in global inequality.

Ray Kiely is Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, UK. He is the author of seven previous books including Rethinking Imperialism (2010), The Clash of Globalisations (2005) and Industrialization and Development (1998).