Haluk Doğan

Is BRICS a cohesive and robust organization capable of shaping an alternative global order, or does it remain a fragmented and informal grouping constrained by structural challenges to internal unity? This issue lies at the heart of recent scholarly debates and is the central focus of three books reviewed in this article: The Role of BRICS in Large-Scale Armed Conflict: Building a Multi-Polar World Order by Malte Brosig, Russia, BRICS, and the Disruption of Global Order by Rachel S. Salzman, and Future of the BRICS and the Role of Russia and China by Junuguru Srinivas.

In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Mearsheimer reinforced his 2014 assessment of the Russian annexation of Crimea, contending that the West bears significant responsibility for the conflict due to its failure to anticipate Russia’s reaction to Western social engineering in Ukraine and NATO’s eastward expansion. In the new argumentative book, Mearsheimer and Rosato bolster this analysis by arguing that Russia’s decision to invade “was a war of self-defense aimed at preventing an adverse shift in the balance of power,” as it was also “the product of a deliberate process”(p. xii) based on “the consensus among Russian leaders regarding the dangers inherent in Ukraine’s relationship with the West” (p. xiii).