Until the 18th century, the center of the world economy and politics had been the East, Asia. Europe took over the international political economy via colonialism based on arms power. They knew well how to turn the tables to themselves with the Industrial Revolution. The U.S. united its states - the colonies of Britain, France, and partially Mexico - at the end of the 18th century, and one century after its civil war between the northern and southern states - by the end of World War II - it became the leader of the global system. Having said that, the leadership of North America and Western and Northern Europe in the international political economy lasted at most 50 years. From the beginning of the 2000s onwards, Asia resumed its rise and increased its weight in the global system. However, it would not be true to define this new process as an East-West fight. There is now competition between the Southern and the Northern Hemisphere in the global political economy.
Two members of the BRICS group, which is comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, are in the Southern Hemisphere. After World War II, the alliance led by the U.S. was a "Northern-Northern" alliance. This is why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was established. Today, on the other hand, a Southern-Southern Alliance is strengthening in the global political economy. On top of this, Turkey and Russia, two strong playmakers in the Northern Hemisphere, are desired partners for the newly rising Southern-Southern Alliance. Turkey, which has reached a level of power that it can now determine its future and faith, and its new "independent" position based on its national sovereignty, will have driven the global elites in the Northern-Northern Alliance crazy, the intelligence organizations under their command, and their proxy terrorist groups such as the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) and Daesh. That is why Germany, which was under the control of the Northern-Northern Alliance during the Cold War, is pushing Turkey.
Today, the Northern-Northern Alliance's population is rapidly aging, and it is searching for ways to stop the Southern-Southern Alliance taking over its weight in the world's production of goods and services and is under the grip of unhealthy tendencies such as Islamophobia, fascism and far-right movements because of its internal uneasiness. The alliance has been sucked into a vortex where anti-globalization movements and protectionist tendencies in global trade have risen again. On the other hand, the Southern-Southern Alliance, including Turkey, is talking about a new "globalization" - free trade and freedom of movement where opportunities are shared. We will continue to work intensely on Turkey's role in Eurasia, as part of the new power distribution in the world.
Strong signal from the BRICS September meeting
According to French scholar David Gosset, who is a prominent expert on China and the new Silk Road and who is on the board of advisors at the International Cooperation Platform, the host institution that annually organizes the Bosporus Summit, the 9th BRICS Summit (Sept. 3-5) in the Chinese coastal city of Xiamen would send a strong signal on the rising importance of developing countries and on the fact that the powers that sustain globalization have shifted toward developing countries from Western countries. Gosset said the BRICS Summit has turned into a forum of increasing importance, in proportion to the growing economic and political weight of its members, in less than 10 years.
Gosset stated that while the BRICS countries, whose economic size make up more than 23 percent of the world economy, are strengthening their internal relations, North America and Western Europe cannot protect their global position, and that the West might be afraid of the globalization it desires whereas the U.S. might see it as attractive. However, he pointed out that this would not trigger the dissolution of globalization. Why? Because globalizing forces can easily switch from one source to the other. Nowadays, newly rising multi-partisanship and collaborations are forming in non-Western regions of the world. According to Gosset, the BRICS dynamics were created by the developing countries for their own interests, however, they also contribute to global stability.
Following the eighth BRICS Summit, the loans given by the New Development Bank (NDP) to bolster projects on renewable energy, and the determination for sustainability and the fight against climate change have placed BRICS at top of the global agenda. Moreover, the establishment of the "Conditional Reserve Regulations" - which is a BRICS mechanism to ensure financial security in countries exposed to market fluctuations - should be borne in mind. BRICS's NDP indicates that the global financial environment is getting richer, following the Bretton Woods System established by the U.S., and reflects on the newly emerging distribution of power.
