| dc.description.abstract | The ‘BRICS’ has become a widespread concept suggesting some form of coherence in the way Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa interact in the global order and their impact on global governance. Still, even with all this attention, the cohesiveness of the BRICS as a ‘collective actor’ in foreign affairs is not fully understood. This thesis explores the involvement of the BRICS in the conflict – and later full-scale war – between Russia and Ukraine from 2014 until the beginning of 2023. It seeks to grasp how the other BRICS members have reacted to the conflict and war, how their discourse has evolved, and the reasons behind their stances. It finds that the BRICS are generally anti-NATO, anti-sanctions (vis-à-vis Russia), and advocate for diplomacy as the path to peace. However, there is a divergence between the member states regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine. Here, Brazil seems to be the outlier as it is much more critical of Russia than the other BRICS countries. It also finds that none of the BRICS are willing to condemn the Ukrainian regime but instead maintain close ties with it. The findings conclude that the BRICS cannot be considered a traditional alliance and must instead be seen as a form of network of states. This holds implications for how future studies should approach the BRICS grouping and how ‘the West’ should approach the political bloc in future conflicts since its members can have vastly different perspectives. | |
