The term “BRIC” (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) was first coined by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O’Neill in 2001, who intended to denote a new phenomenon of the four fastest-growing emerging economies of the world. The formation of the BRIC as a grouping emerged when the foreign ministers of the four countries met in New York in 2006, followed by a series of high-level meetings. Since then, the BRIC gradually evolved into a multilateral grouping with the first summit held in 2009. It became “BRICS” when South Africa was invited by China to the Third Heads of State BRIC Summit.
Based on the phenomenon of the rise of new or emerging powers coupled with the situation of the financial crisis that has been weakening the traditional powers, global research and academic communities are predicting that the world order is experiencing a rebalancing of power. Such prediction is most evident in the economic dimension but has implications in the global political domains as well. Many scholars highlighted this transformation from a Realist perspective that the world is experiencing an interesting but “disturbing” moment characterized by an imbalance between the order and the distribution of power that is becoming more diffused.