The BRICS and the Global Political Economy: challenging classical economic approaches and insights for the future

Since the establishment of the BRICS (the emerging countries Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), the group plays an important role and it has been capable of influencing the Global Political Economy (GPE), challenging the Western capitalist principles. Acknowledging the economic and political power of the group, the following paper aims to analyze how the BRICS are changing the classical economic approaches in the GPE. For that, it explores the economic approaches to the field - and how the BRICS are challenging these concepts - using the neoliberal and nationalist concepts of O’Brien and Williams (2016), as well as the new trends in the global order and global governance. It also presents some aspects of the future of the BRICS, acknowledging the political and economic disparities among its constitutive countries. For that, it analyses news and prospects about the disparities and possible futures of the group.