Kwang Ho Chun - The BRICs Superpower Challenge: Foreign and Security Policy Analysis

THE BRICS SUPERPOWER CHALLENGE

Foreign and Security Policy Analysis

KWANG HO CHUN
Chonbuk National University, Korea

ASHGATE

Kwang Ho Chun 2013

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Kwang Ho Chun has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:
Chun, Kwang Ho.

The BRICs superpower challenge : foreign and security policy analysis / by Kwang Ho Chun.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-4094-6869-1 (hardback : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4094-6870-7 (ebook) ISBN 978-1-4094-6871-4 (epub) 1. World politics21st century. 2. Security, International. 3. BrazilForeign relations21st century. 4. Russia (Federation)Foreign relations21st century. 5. IndiaForeign relations21st century. 6. ChinaForeign relations21st century. I. Title.

JZ1310.C495 2013
327dc23

2013021069

ISBN 9781409468691 (hbk)
ISBN 9781409468707 (ebk-PDF)
ISBN 9781409468714 (ebk-ePUB)

I would like to thank all those who helped me to complete this research. My thanks go to Dr Chungwon Choue, who first inspired me on this topic and in starting my research, Prof. Dr Luc Reychler of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Prof. Dr Andr-Paul Frognier of Universit Catholique de Louvain, Prof. Christoph Bluth of the University of Leeds and Prof. Hazel Smith of the Woodrow Wilson Center. They all helped me develop and polish my ideas regarding this research topic through valuable comments and constructive criticism. I would particularly like to express my whole-hearted gratitude to my lifetime adviser, Dr Chungwon Choue. I am equally grateful to Dr Guh Suk Seo, the President of Chonbuk National University, Korea for his financial and undoubted support and trust in me as a researcher. They ceaselessly encouraged and stimulated my work with a great deal of kindness and endurance during my research.

I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of those who offered me valuable comments on the text, including my editor, Brian Austerfield of the University of Central Lancashire.

This research required an enormous amount of material and a number of occasions for practical observation of the BRICs countries. The Royal United Service Institute, the International Institute for Strategic Studies and University of Central Lancashire helped me greatly in this matter. I would like to extend my warm gratitude to members of all these research centres and many others.

Finally, I also would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest love to my family, Dr Sung Eun Kim and Hyung Mo. The completion of this work in England was possible only thanks to my familys full-time support, endurance and sacrifice.

Since the collapse of the USSR in the early 1990s, the United States has been enjoying a dominant position in the global power system as the sole superpower nation. However, there have been arguments by some international relations (IR) and political science academics and commentators to the effect that the US may not continue as the worlds sole superpower in the near future; rather, a power shift is likely to be witnessed as some of the contemporary major powers step up their resources and power games to become major forces in the global arena. At the dawn of the twenty-first century, some economic analysts, led by Goldman Sachs, noted the rapid pace with which the economies of the BRICs countries (an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China) were growing and noted that in the near future, their economies will have overtaken most of the current major world powers. This revelation heightened the debate that had been under way among IR academics and analysts about the future of the BRICs in the global power system, and in particular what the future might hold for them. It is a debate that remains highly controversial to date.