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American hegemony has passed its peak. The twenty-first century will see a more multi-polar international system. Yet Western European countries may not be the United States' main foils in decades to come. Four new poles of the international system are now widely known in the business and financial press as the "BRICs economies" (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). Does the concept of "the BRICs" have meaning within a rigorous political science framing? From the perspective of an economic liberal employing neoclassical assumptions to understand the world economy, the category's justification is surprisingly weak. In contrast, a political or economic realist's framing instructs us to focus on states that are increasing their relative material capabilities—as each of the four is. Finally, within a liberal institutionalist's mental model, the BRICs countries are a compelling set, yet one with a deep cleavage between two sub-groups: large emerging powers likely to remain authoritarian or revert to that state, and those that are securely democratic. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, through a comparative, empirical study of the role Chinese and Indian diasporas play in the political economy of their respective ancestral homelands, explores the relationship between diaspora and homeland development and how this dynamic relationship affects economic growth and foreign relations of the homelands. The author argues that the significant roles of Indian and Chinese diasporas in their respective homelands' development and foreign relations consistently reflect, and are heavily influenced by, their home countries' economic development strategies and political history and culture. The contributions of Chinese and Indian diasporas to their homelands provide a unique perspective in the comparative study of Chinese and Indian political economy. The research concludes that as globalization deepens, the role of diasporas will become more salient in international political economy, and that the international community needs to pay more attention to the two diaspora groups that are closely linked to the two rising Asian powers. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]