The Rise of the BRICS in Africa: The Geopolitics of South–South Relations
The Rise of the BRICS in Africa: The Geopolitics of South–South Relations
Author: Pádraig Carmody
Publisher: Zed Books
Publication Year: 2013
Edition: 1st
About this Book
The Rise of the BRICS in Africa offers one of the earliest and most comprehensive examinations of how Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa collectively shape Africa’s development trajectory and geopolitical position. In contrast to earlier narratives that portrayed Africa as a “hopeless continent,” Pádraig Carmody shows how the continent’s rising economic performance is deeply intertwined with the expanding presence of the BRICS. The book provides a critical and balanced analysis of how these emerging powers engage with Africa—revealing both new opportunities and emerging contradictions.
Carmody argues that the BRICS are reshaping global governance, challenging Western dominance, and creating new political and economic spaces for African states. Yet this engagement is far from uniform or uniformly beneficial. Each BRICS country brings its own historical legacies, economic structures, ideologies, and strategic interests, resulting in a complex web of relationships that vary across regions and sectors. The book shows how BRICS investments and policies often generate growth while simultaneously producing new inequalities, environmental pressures, and selective forms of “graduated sovereignty.”
One of the book’s major contributions is its exploration of the South–South geopolitical imaginary, a space constructed through claims of solidarity, equality, and mutual benefit. Carmody critically assesses how this narrative is mobilized—sometimes genuinely, sometimes strategically—particularly by China, Brazil, and India, to expand influence and build partnerships. He also highlights the cultural and soft power dimensions of BRICS engagement, which are essential to understanding this new global landscape.
Clear, engaging, and interdisciplinary, the book is essential reading for scholars and students of international relations, African studies, development studies, and global political economy. It offers a nuanced account of how emerging powers are reconfiguring globalization and what this means for Africa’s political and economic futures.
Contents
Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
- Introduction: New Models of Globalization
- China: Globalization and the Rise of the State
- South Africa: Her BRIC in the Wall?
- India: The Geo-Logics of Agro-Investments
- Russia: Unalloyed Self-Interest or Reflections in the Mirror?
- Brazil: Globalizing Solidarity or Legitimizing Accumulation?
- Conclusion: Governance and the Evolution of Globalization in Africa
Notes
Bibliography
Index
