Abstract

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This Evidence Report provides a summary account of the role of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) in shaping the current global development landscape.

It first looks at the origin of the BRICS as a political association, then considers their economic trajectories in the first decade and a half of the new century, followed by an investigation of the political and global governance implications of the involvement of the BRICS in the new economic and political geographies unfolding in the multipolar world of today. Finally, the report considers the BRICS as a vector in the evolving development cooperation scene.​