This study has addressed the question of whether a group of emerging economies are likely to coalesce into an economic or political bloc that would fragment global governance and promote alternative approaches to global economic, diplomatic, or security issues and develop a counterbalance to Western influence in existing economic, financial, and political institutions. The two main issues addressed are:

• The nature of the increased influence of emerging economies on the international stage

• The extent to which the emerging economies are cooperating strategically on economic, diplomatic and security matters

Our brief review of large emerging economies shows that the recent decade was a period when their economic growth accelerated substantially compared to the decade before. At the same time, in OECD countries (the West) the trend went in the opposite direction: growth rates have been negatively affected by two recessions – the first after the dotcom boom and the second (the ‘great recession’) in the aftermath of the 2007‒2008 financial crisis. In 2010 the economic output of all eight BRICS+ countries combined (measured in GDP at PPP) exceeded the EU's GDP by almost 50%, while just 9 years before (in 2001) it was 14% less than the EU's overall GDP.

Rapid economic growth in the BRICS+ countries has helped many of them to greatly improve the state of their public finances. This is quite a remarkable improvement taking into account that in the 1990s and early 2000s Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Indonesia along with some other large emerging economies all either defaulted on their foreign debt or were on the brink of doing so. Public finances in many BRICS+ countries are currently in much better shape than in large OECD members. Public debt in the U.S., UK, and many continental European economies has surged as a result of the great recession and reached a level that is likely to weigh down their economic growth in the coming years.

The military in the BRICS+ is another sector that has benefited from the rapid growth. While the general trend in military expenditure as a share of GDP in the BRICS+ countries does not show any substantial increase over the last 10 years, absolute resources available to defense increased significantly across the board.