The course will focus on the rapidly evolving strategic environment and the role that emerging powers are playing in the ongoing global power shift. Throughout the course the concept of emerging powers will be explored critically, assessing the actual and potential performance both in domestic and international affairs of the members of the BRICS fora. An overview of the Eurasian and Indo-Pacific geopolitics in the last 40 years will be discussed during the first session as the basis to understanding the currently unfolding era of strategic competition with a contested world order. In the following sessions, the domestic affairs and foreign policies of Brazil, China, India and Russia will be explored, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of each one of them and the serious challenges they must face to consolidate themselves as global powers. Over the last two lectures the concept of power and the reconfiguration of global order and the role played by and evolution of the BRICS will be analyzed critically wrapping up the course within a general theoretical framework.

Assessment

• Individual short essay (80% of the final mark). Free topic but to be agreed with the instructors.

• Class assistance and participation (20%)

Competences, learning outcomes and teaching activities (PDF)