BRICS in the Post-Liberal World Order: A New Agenda for Cooperation? Perspectives from South Africa

Given complexities currently underpinning multipolar realities of the international system, it seems that a pluralist internationalism is becoming a strategic consideration for a post-Western world order. This warrants new agendas for cooperation. Based on the latter this analysis examines to what extent the BRICS can articulate such a new agenda based on a South African-informed perspective. This involves exploring the basis of a BRICS-African agenda competing with the geo-political interests of sub-groupings such as the SCO, RIC, and the EAEU. There seems ample room for BRICS, and South Africa as a member of BRICS, to make a difference in addressing how a changing African landscape through Agenda 2063 and implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement can advance continental integration and its positioning globally. The onus is on South Africa to ensure that the African agenda in the BRICS finds resonance.