The expanded BRICS bloc gathers in New Delhi this weekend as leaders discuss conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine, along with trade, energy security, and global governance.
Allen Carlson, an associate professor of government at Cornell University and an expert on Chinese foreign policy, says the summit highlights how the balance of global power has changed over the past two decades.
Carlson says: “Twenty-five years ago today, the attacks of September 11 left little question that America stood at the center of the world, and the two decades that followed were shaped by that assumption.
“BRICS is no longer an incipient power bloc but the core of the emerging international order, with China at its center. The implications for the U.S. are profound. President Trump and his advisers clearly think the world still revolves around Washington, but this no longer holds true.
“It is led today by India under Modi and China under Xi Jinping, as both countries have emerged as crucial fulcrums of the global economy. But China has paired that economic clout with rapidly expanding military capabilities as well.
“This is as much a result of American self-inflicted wounds as of Xi's skill at home and abroad. In this new world, the Xi-Trump summit later this month is something of an afterthought, shaped more by those gathering in India than by what anyone in Washington wants.
“What this means for the U.S., Asia, and particularly Taiwan remains to be seen. But for better or worse, there appears to be a new sheriff in town.”
