BRICS, primarily composed of emerging economies, is driven more by geoeconomics than geopolitics. Despite their differing geopolitical approaches—often aligning with opposing blocs—they have still managed to form coalitions. How is this possible? Is there a paradigm shift in their policies? Or are they so entrenched in nationalistic interests that they overlook their contradictions?
Mikael Wigell, in his research, “Conceptualizing regional powers’ geo-economic strategies,” sums up that there has been a major shift in regional powers’ policies after the Cold War, namely geo-economic and geopolitical. The post-Cold War era is characterized not so much by political or ideological rivalry but by economic competition. At that time, the two new approaches were adopted with two interdependent means and ends (political or economic). Some powers adopted economic strategies as a means to achieve political objectives (neo-imperialism, a formal name for the empire ) while others used them not to pursue some immediate........