Leaning on the BRICS as a Geopolitical Counterweight Leads Only to Faux-Polyarchic, Subimperial “Spalling”

Abstract

A global theory of uneven development, for which the world-systems perspective is a vital geopolitical accompaniment, contributes to an explanation of the current global geopolitical chaos, so well expressed by Joe Biden in his 2020 Foreign Affairs lament: “the international system that the United States so carefully constructed is coming apart at the seams.” Biden aimed to consign to history his predecessor Donald Trump’s “paleoconservative” nationalism, instead yearning for Obama-style fusions of neoliberalism and neoconservatism in foreign policy. This was witnessed in key appointments to the State Department, his boost to the Pentagon budget (far more generous than Trump’s), and his reassertion of pro-corporate multilateralism even in areas such as climate policy. At the 2021 United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, his team had no real intention of taking the steps necessary to avert global catastrophe, whether in terms of the competing climate-justice or ecological-modernization (“climate action”) ideologies. The European Union and United Kingdom would readily fall in line, especially insofar as Brexit compelled some Tory strategists to take up an “Empire 2.0” agenda; although the term soon became unfashionable, the intent was realized nevertheless in practice via the Commonwealth and bilateral trade and investment relations.