This map is more relevant than ever (BRICS thread)
I think it needs an update given how many previous fence sitters seem to be rallying around the vanguard party and allowing various blossoms to bloom.
So...here’s the definitive BRICS thought-leader reading list for when you get tired of regurgitating State Department talking points and want to engage with the actual intellectual traditions shaping the multipolar world.
(Spoiler: it’s not Thomas Friedman and it’s not “Why America Still Matters.”)
>Immanuel Wallerstein – World-Systems Analysis
Required primer so you stop asking “bUt WhY wOuLd BrAzIl WoRk WiTh ChInA” and realize capitalism is a global hierarchy, not your Econ 101 fairytale.
>Samir Amin – Beyond US Hegemony?
Amin pretty much wrote the syllabus on why the Global South doesn’t owe Washington squat. Mandatory if you want to understand BRICS as de-linking, not “developing.”
>Radhika Desai – Geopolitical Economy
Desai actually explains how multipolarity emerges from imperial decline. Not a NYT op-ed, an actual framework.
>Patrick Bond – BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique
Not hagiography. Bond takes the Global South “big tent” at its word and interrogates contradictions—because shocker: multipolarity ≠ utopia.
>Oliver Stuenkel – The BRICS and the Future of Global Order
The book for when your liberal coworker sneers “BuT tHeY’Re DiFfErEnT pOlItIcAl SyStEmS.”
>Michael Hudson – Super Imperialism (new edition)
Hudson lays bare how the dollar order works like a rigged casino. Yes, your precious IMF is just the pit boss.
>Vijay Prashad – The Darker Nations + The Poorer Nations
Straight-up required to understand why BRICS is about historical continuity, not some TikTok-era novelty.
So...here’s the definitive BRICS thought-leader reading list for when you get tired of regurgitating State Department talking points and want to engage with the actual intellectual traditions shaping the multipolar world.
(Spoiler: it’s not Thomas Friedman and it’s not “Why America Still Matters.”)
>Immanuel Wallerstein – World-Systems Analysis
Required primer so you stop asking “bUt WhY wOuLd BrAzIl WoRk WiTh ChInA” and realize capitalism is a global hierarchy, not your Econ 101 fairytale.
>Samir Amin – Beyond US Hegemony?
Amin pretty much wrote the syllabus on why the Global South doesn’t owe Washington squat. Mandatory if you want to understand BRICS as de-linking, not “developing.”
>Radhika Desai – Geopolitical Economy
Desai actually explains how multipolarity emerges from imperial decline. Not a NYT op-ed, an actual framework.
>Patrick Bond – BRICS: An Anti-Capitalist Critique
Not hagiography. Bond takes the Global South “big tent” at its word and interrogates contradictions—because shocker: multipolarity ≠ utopia.
>Oliver Stuenkel – The BRICS and the Future of Global Order
The book for when your liberal coworker sneers “BuT tHeY’Re DiFfErEnT pOlItIcAl SyStEmS.”
>Michael Hudson – Super Imperialism (new edition)
Hudson lays bare how the dollar order works like a rigged casino. Yes, your precious IMF is just the pit boss.
>Vijay Prashad – The Darker Nations + The Poorer Nations
Straight-up required to understand why BRICS is about historical continuity, not some TikTok-era novelty.
