To what extent do the BRICS sustain the existing international order?

Abstract

This paper identifies the extent to which the BRICS maintain the existing
international order. Such an inquiry has important implications for our
understandings of the state of contemporary international order and what future order
will entail. Ultimately, this paper identifies that the BRICS are the crux of any
changes to world order, and that the story has yet to be written. In turn, key questions
are highlighted to map how to use the BRICS as a subject of inquiry about reordering
of international politics.
Conceptually, the paper outlines an argument for understanding changes to
international society in terms of legitimacy. There are two sources of authority in
international society, power and values, which comprise legitimacy. Changes in the
respective hierarchies of power and values yield different kinds of change. Change in
the power hierarchy of international society yields change in the identity and/or
number of great powers. Change in the value hierarchy of international society, the
values which define the purpose of international society, is what leads to reordering.
This framework is applied to the BRICS and contemporary international order.