What's BRIC, and why these four countries?
In less than 40 years, China, and probably India, will surpass the U.S. as the world's largest economies. Russia and Brazil will catch Germany, the UK, and France. The six richest countries in the world will be 1) China, 2) India, 3) USA, 4) Japan, 5) Russia, 6) Brazil.
Who's going to be in the G7 (or 8, or 12, or maybe just 6)? Is the EU there as a whole or individual countries? What blocs or conflicts might form between the Asian powers?
The BRICs are real. The initial 2003 report, by Dominic Wilson and Roopa Purushothaman of Goldman Sachs, has been validated thus far in the market. Even then-laggard Brazil has turned its GDP growth around and is up above 6%. (And they have oil now.) This isn't an if, but a when.
What's interesting to me about the BRICs is that they completely change the cultural composition of global power. For about 500 years, it's been Western-centric in the European-American sense, the modern Japanese juggernaut the lone exception. Suddenly, we have four completely different cultures — Latin-African, Slavic, Aryan-Dravidian, and Confucian — entering the stage at the same time.
MICKS, KRIC, Chindia, N11, and the rest
The minute an elite club forms, there are always a few people miffed at being left out. Why not Mexico, or Korea, Indonesia, South Africa, Nigeria, Turkey, Pakistan or Vietnam? Because the acronym would be too long, doesn't imply growth like BRIC, and they countries don't look as impressive on a map like the one above. Which combination really doesn't matter as much as this: the 21st Century is not going to be about the West, so we might as well get used to playing nice with others. And maybe trying to learn something about them.