Introduction:
The world power structure is changing, and the new bloc, BRICS, is emerging from the third world and entering into power competition. As of 2026, BRICS has 11 full members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. BRICS is an emerging power, and it belongs to the third world. These emerging powers took a long time to catch up with First World countries. These countries are mostly developing economies, and they represent Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, not all the BRICS countries are as advanced as the first world in the field of technology and other elements of power, such as military power.
BRICS members are emerging powers but are not as powerful as the nations of the first world like the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, Germany etc. (Kahn, 2011). These have a high growth rate but have a low GDP rate, less technological development and a strong media influence over the world. In this era of communication, media is considered the fifth organ of the state and is now an influential and power-deciding factor. Media plays a vital role in the emergence of significant power. The first world has a strong media network like BBC and CNN.
The United States of America has a strong media network, and this plays an essential role in American supremacy. Media plays a vital role in the hegemony of the United States of America. CNN and Fox News have a vast media network and have the power to change the system. It is an era of psychological warfare in this era of media as an essential element of power (Li, 2017). Media is a necessary tool of psychological warfare and it plays a vital role in the power structure.
If you have economic and military power, it is a primary element of power; all the major powers have powerful military forces and economies. In this era, communication, along with this initial element of power, you have media, will help to maintain your hegemony. Media plays a vital role in changing the minds of people, and when you have control over the minds of people, it is easy for you to rule over them (Li, 2017).
In the field of military warfare or economic warfare, media plays an active role. Propaganda is an essential tool of war in the contemporary world, media is one of the best tools for propaganda. Propaganda was used before the technological era, and in the modern world, propaganda remains an essential tool of war. Propaganda also played a vital role in World War I and World War II. During World War II, Nazi leader Hitler had a propaganda minister who was one of his most trusted officials. His main work was to create propaganda. Propaganda is used for two primary purposes. One is to raise the morale of one’s own people and army. Second, propaganda is used to demoralise the people of the opponent and the military of the opponent. When you discourage the other, it will help to win a war. In the Second World War, radio was used as an essential tool of propaganda, and it will play a very productive role in Second World War.
After World War two, the world power structure changed, and world power shifted from a multipolar to a bipolar structure and the United States and USSR emerged as a world superpower. And after the end of world war two when the USSR and the United States of America emerged as superpowers, the era of the Cold War started between two superpowers of the world. The Cold War, 1945 to 1990, was an era of cold war. During this period these two superpowers could not confront each other directly, so they used different fronts, such as Vietnam for the testing of their power capacity and increase the area of influence over the globe. The Cold War is the highest stage of propaganda. At this time, propaganda played an essential role in the war.
In 1990 at the disintegration of the USSR, the Cold War ended. The world power structure changed from bipolar to a unipolar world and the United States of America emerged as the sole superpower of the world.
From 1990 onward, the United States of America has been the sole superpower, and now another bloc is emerging to change the world power structure. The phenomenon of BRICS appeared after 2009 (Xing, 2016). Initially, BRICS included only four members—Brazil, China, India, and Russia—and South Africa was not included. South Africa joined BRICS in 2010, and the first annual meeting of BRICS nations was held in 2009.
All the BRICS have a large population and economies, three of the BRICS member states have strong military forces, but two of them are not strong from a military perspective.
BRICS Member States Potential And Their Relations:
As of 2026, BRICS comprises 11 full members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, and Saudi Arabia. The historical discussion below focuses mainly on the original five-member grouping, whose members have not always enjoyed close relations with one another. For example, China and India are not experiencing good relations.
In the BRICS member states, Russia and China are enjoying good cordial relations. During the 1950s, there were border issues between Russia and China, and they fought a war over the border issue. Both China and Russia are two primary members of BRICS, and also founding member states of the SCO (Shanghai cooperation organisation) and China is the most significant economic power of the BRICS member states and Russia is a leading military power and former superpower. China and Russia also share a long common border (Kahn, 2011).
China and India are two neighboring states and members of BRICS and SCO. These two states had border clashes, and they fought a full-fledged war on the border issue in 1962 over the Tibet issue. They have border issues and do not enjoy excellent and friendly relations (Xing, 2016).
China, India and Russia are three influential members of BRICS and have a common border. China and India have a large population and economic power. All these BRICS member states have powerful military forces and are also members of the SCO.
Brazil is a BRICS member and a Latin American state. Brazil has vast natural resources, and it also has regional supremacy and counters the role of the United States of America in the Latin American continent. Brazil is one of the emerging economies of the globe and the most significant economic power in Latin America (Chu, 2015). Brazil has an influential and dominant role in regional politics. Brazil is an economic and influential regional power. It does not have a strong army to challenge the position of the United States of America in the Latin American region. For an emerging power in Latin America, both economic and reliable military power are important. Military superiority plays a vital role in regional as well as global politics.
South Africa is another member of BRICS that joined BRICS in 2010. South Africa is from the African continent, which is one of the poorest continents of this globe. South Africa is an emerging economy but has a weak military force. We know that along with economic power, military power plays an important role. When you have strong economic power but do not possess a powerful military, you cannot win on the battlefield. Military superiority is a deciding factor in the battlefield. Along with the economy, you have a need for a dominant military for regional supremacy (Chu, 2015).
The BRICS states are emerging economies, and they represent almost 42% of the population of the world. In the BRICS member states, China and India are more populous countries. The five BRICS nations account for only 22% of global GDP. The BRICS nation is far behind the developing world. The per capita income of BRICS is low as compared to the first world developed states. The BRICS states are not comparable to the first world; the first world countries are highly advanced in all fields of life.
The first world has a high per capita income, a low poverty rate and a low unemployment rate. BRICS member India has a high poverty rate and also a high unemployment rate. The BRICS member states have a low literacy rate. These states need more time to attain a living standard equal to that of first-world states.
The BRICS member states are more focused on their material and military development. These states place less emphasis on other societal needs that are given by the first-world developed countries. In the first world, there is a low death rate; first-world states are more advanced in the health sector, and they have substantial scientific development in the field of health (Stephen, 2014). The health condition of BRICS states is poor compared with that of the first world.
BRICS states are behind the single first world country in many fields, including the military. The total defence budget of the United States of America is higher than the total defence budget of BRICS states. The United States is also advanced in defense technology (Kiely, 2015).
There is a massive gap between the United States of America and five BRICS member states (Stephen, 2014). There is close competition between the United States of America and China in the field of the overall economy, but in the economic development, the United States of America is more highly advanced than China and all other BRICS member states. There is near competition between Russia and the United States of America, but America is also on the upper edge, including the defense sector. The United States of America is more developed than every BRICS member state (Kiely, 2015).
The combined BRICS population is 42.8 percent of the global population and the United States of America has a much smaller population than BRICS, contributing only 3 percent of the world’s population. The total GDP of member’s states have only 22 percent share in the global GDP rate, and that is 37 trillion dollar, and the entire GDP of United States of America is 18 trillion dollar (Robinson, 2015). There is no comparison in the per capita of United States of America and the BRICS member states. The United States of America is the world’s biggest donor and gives the most funding to the United Nations.
The United States of America spends more than any other state in the world. The United States of America’s total defense budget is more than the total budget of the combined BRICS states. United States of America spends more than 600 billion dollars on their defence while on the other the whole defence budget of BRICS member states is less than 300 billion dollars. Of these 300 billion, 70 percent share is only two BRICS member states, China and India (Robinson, 2015). They are both on the list of countries with the highest defense spending after the United States. The United States of America is more advanced in defence sector both qualitatively and quantitatively compared with BRICS.
No doubt, BRICS is an emerging powerful bloc. And in the future, BRICS may become more influential; the development rate of BRICS states is 5 percent, and this rate in the United States of America is only two percent. The BRICS represent almost half of the world and from three continents: Asia, Africa and Latin America. The decisive point is that these BRICS member states are rich in natural resources (Zeng et al. 2017).
Conclusion
BRICS is an emerging bloc and challenges the supremacy of the first world or developed states over the world. This bloc has potentially influential economies, and most of its members also have powerful military forces. But this bloc has also faced many problems, such as a high rate of unemployment, a high percentage of poverty and a low per capita income. As compared to BRICS, first-world countries have a high per capita income, low poverty rate and low unemployment rate. BRICS members also have a lower literacy rate as compared to the nations of the first world. The living standard of the first world is too high as compared to BRICS member states.
Many BRICS member states face problems of ethnicity and political systems. Not all BRICS member states have a democratic form of government. The BRICS member nations are not as advanced in the technological and scientific field compared with first-world countries. The BRICS member states have a high GDP rate compared with the First World, but in overall performance, the BRICS member states are far behind the first world and need time to attain equal status. The many criticisms faced by BRICS in the media when they compare BRICS with first world states. BRICS member states need more time to play an active role in world affairs.
References
Chu, J.M., 2015. The rise of BRICS in Africa: the geopolitics of South-South relations/Agricultural development and food security in Africa: the impact of Chinese, Indian and Brazilian investments.
Kahn, M., 2011. The fall of the wall, the rise of the BRICs and the new scramble for Africa. Foresight, 13(3), pp. 38-49.
Kiely, R., 2015. The BRICs, US ‘decline’and global transformations. Palgrave Macmillan.
Li, S., 2017. International Debate over China–Africa Media Engagements. In Mediatized China-Africa Relations (pp. 21-47). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Robinson, W.I., 2015. The transnational state and the BRICS: A global capitalism perspective. Third World Quarterly, 36(1), pp. 1-21.
Stephen, M.D., 2014. Rising powers, global capitalism and liberal global governance: A historical materialist account of the BRICs challenge. European Journal of International Relations, 20(4), pp. 912-938.
Xing, L., 2016. Constructing and Conceptualizing “Interdependent Hegemony” in an Era of the Rise of the BRICS and Beyond. In The BRICS and Beyond (pp. 67-88). Routledge.
Zeng, S., Liu, Y., Liu, C. and Nan, X., 2017. A review of renewable energy investment in the BRICS countries: History, models, problems and solutions. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 74, pp. 860-872.
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