BRICS: The New World Economic Order

April 14, 2025                                               Part 1 was published last week

Recently the Paul Bogle Action Network (PBAN) interviewed Dr. Horace Bartilow, Ph.D., Author and professor of International Political Economy and American Foreign Policy at American University, Washington D.C. to discuss China in the context of the current state of the world economy, the crisis of US imperialism and the outlook for the BRICS economic and Trade collaboration.

 PBAN: In the 70’s there was much talk and activism from the developing countries about a New World Economic Order; now with the inception and expansion of BRICS, a new opportunity presents itself. Should the countries of CARICOM join BRICS?

 Professor Bartilow: CARICOM has no choice; eventually they are going to join BRICS. This may sound crazy to you, but eventually the United States is going to join BRICS too; I do not say this may happen in my or your lifetime. I refer to Trump as the “banana peel” of the collapse of hegemony; he did not ignite it but like a banana peel he is speeding up the process. What do I mean by that? Eventually he is going to alienate the Europeans, he is sending very strong signs to them that American leadership cannot be trusted; and the Europeans will begin to think that “we really have to think about our own security.”  In a way it is also their own stupidity and their own fault. Be that as it may, the European economy right now is a “basket case;” most of their economy including Germany which was called the “economic engine” of Europe, is about to collapse right now. They have not been able to innovate, the Chinese have completely dominated the EV market to the point where Volkswagen, Audi, and Mercedes Benz are all in economic crisis. Volkswagen is almost at the stage of bankruptcy, they have been asking the German government to bail them out; there have been strikes because they cannot pay their workers. If Volkswagen goes, so goes Germany. That is one thing, the second thing is that they have foolishly followed the United States in using Ukraine in its proxy war against Russia, and Russia has won that war. That war is over and Donald Trump is going to be the first American president to formally acknowledge that.

Proxy War and The European Economy

The last Biden-Harris Administration did not want to acknowledge this reality. Trump is going to negotiate an end to a conflict that has really been over, and like all wars when they come to an end, the negotiations are always on the side of those who wins; it will be on Russia’s terms. What are Russia’s terms? Russia’s terms are very clear, very simple: They want the United States and Western Europe to respect what they call the “post-soviet security space” which means that Ukraine will never ever be a member of NATO. They do not want NATO on their borders, reasonable right? People forget that when the Soviets placed missiles in Cuba that brought technically the WARSAW Pact right on the Florida border, they went nuts. That is how colonialists operate; what they do to others is fine what others do to them is completely “Armageddon.” Trump is going to negotiate an end to this and it is going to be on Russia’s terms. The Europeans will be devastated because this is a war they backed and it bankrupted their economy; they no longer have access to cheap Russian energy and, this is one of the reasons why Germany is almost on the brinks of collapse

The so-called genius of the European Union and their economic integration was all due to the fact that they were getting cheap Russian energy, and when you take that away it is in shambles. That situation is now going to put a rift between the Europeans and the United States, which will not be overcome again. Eventually what will happen is that you will begin to see maybe NATO starting to fray; transatlantic relations will start to fray; the far-right who have always been suspicious of NATO and transatlantic relations, they will now begin to demand that Europe begin to look inward at their own security. Maybe create a European defense force which will eventually be an alternative to NATO until they eventually get rid of it; get rid of NATO.

The United States then, one of its major “planks” for American vision will eventually disappear, which is in Europe. While all that process is going on, while the West is in a process of collapse, many European countries will begin to reach out to BRICS because it will be the largest growing economy in the world. There is no other place else to go, even these European countries are going to be making their “Mecca”  to BRICS, including the United States. Of course the CARICOM countries should join.

CARICOM Needs Foreign Policy With Vision

CARICOM should rethink their Foreign Policy, they need to look at that part of the world which is the future, and that is the East and not the West. That is why you need leadership that has vision; the future is in the East, not the West. It is not in Washington D.C.; it is not in London; it is not in Bonn; it is not in Paris. It is Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia. Indonesia which has the third largest population in the world, which has the second or third largest growing economy in the world is now a member of BRICS, which is the future. We need to recalibrate our trade and investment relations with the East not the West. That should have been from the 1980’s; can you imagine where the Caribbean would now be if they had started back then? One have to understand that the current historical period that you find yourself in is not going to remain permanent, for the next thirty or forty years.

The problem with leadership, not just in the Caribbean but all over the world, is that they have what is called “permanency.” They believe that what they inherit is permanent and because they have a perspective of “permanency,” they cannot anticipate change and they cannot adjust to it. The West also have a kind of “permanency” but that is built into their mentality, because they are colonialist at heart; and so it is only a matter of time that CARICOM will become a member of BRICS. If Caribbean leadership is deliberating about the obvious, then we are in trouble. If one can only make decisions only about the things one can see then one is in trouble. It is one thing to be colonized but as Bob Marley said, “mental slavery” is an issue. That “mental slavery” prevents us from seeing possibilities and changes, and to also anticipate how we can situate ourselves to take advantages of when empire begins to crack.

 Paul Bogle Action Network (PBAN) is an organization of concerned Jamaicans, helping to facilitate the development and nurturing of working-class organizations in Jamaica where absent; and where they exist, strengthen their focus. Questions and information request can be sent to: paulbogleactionnetwork@gmail.com