Q&A: The BRICS expansion and the global balance of power

MIT political scientist Taylor Fravel examines the potential and limitations of a bigger BRICS group of countries - and what it means for the U.S. In early September, the BRICS group of countries with emerging economies - an informal alliance among Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa - announced it would expand its ranks by six nations. Argentina, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and UAE are now set to join the BRICS group in the near future. This would loosely link together countries representing about 30 percent of global GDP and 43 percent of global oil production, and some experts have speculated about further expansion of the group in the longer term. To discuss the BRICS development, spoke with M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on China's foreign policy and security strategy, who is the director of MIT's Security Studies Program, as well as the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor in MIT's Department of Political Science. Q: Why is the BRICS expansion happening now? A: There's been interest in expanding for a while. The BRICS primarily appeals to the relatively developed economies in the developing world. But there are huge differences in economic and military power within even the five current BRICS countries.