Exclusive Interview: BRICS Offers a Glimpse of What a New Global World Order Could Look Like

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – AUGUST 24: (EDITORS NOTE: This image has been converted to black and white) South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with fellow Brics leaders pose for a family photo with new Bric members at the last day of the Brics summit fellow leaders president, Xi Jinping, China’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, and Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, Brazil president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Iranian president is Ebrahim Raisi, on the closing day of the BRICS summit at the Sandton Convention Center in the Sandton district of Johannesburg on August 24, 2023, South Africa. The BRICS summit, held in South Africa between 22-24 August 2023. The BRICS group of major emerging economies is made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The 15th BRICS Summit, an international relations conference, is being held in South Africa between August 22-24 2023 with the leaders expected to discuss the expansion of the BRICS group and a BRICS currency. It is the first in-person summit of the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – since the Covid-19 pandemic. Russian President Vladimir Putin will not be attending the meetings in person due to the ICC, International Criminal Court issued warrant for alleged war crimes. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)

Posted: August 31st, 2023

By Norman T. Roule

Norman T. Roule is a geopolitical and energy consultant who served for 34 years in the Central Intelligence Agency, managing numerous programs relating to Iran and the Middle East. He served as the National Intelligence Manager for Iran (NIM-I) at the ODNI from 2008 until 2017. As NIM-I, he was the principal Intelligence Community (IC) official responsible for overseeing all aspects of national intelligence policy and activities related to Iran, to include IC engagement on Iran issues with senior policymakers in the National Security Council and the Department of State.

SUBSCRIBER+ EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – If there were an indicator of what a new world order could look like, it was likely on display during last week’s BRICS gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa.

It was the group’s largest gathering since an initial meeting of foreign ministers from Brazil, Russia, India and China in 2006, (South Africa eventually joined, giving the group the BRICS acronym) and notably absent, were Western countries, including the United States.

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