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🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 Despite its heterogeneity and its frequent dismissal by Western analysts, the BRICS has emerged as an alternative political bloc, contesting unipolarity and Western dominance in the international liberal order in order to promote an alternative global economic and diplomatic strategy.

In this context, the expansion of the BRICS has accelerated due to three factors:

1️⃣ First, the intense East-West confrontation.

2️⃣ Second, the deepening of “BRICS Plus cooperation”.

3️⃣ Third, demands for the inclusion of “node” countries “with clear national strengths and obvious location advantages”, according to Nian Peng of the Research Centre for Asian Studies in Haikou, China.

The BRICS are seen as an alternative to the G7 countries, grouping together five of the most dynamic emerging economies, which are positioning themselves as a decisive factor in the global governance architecture and as a voice of the ‘Global South’ that advocates an economic and political alternative to the West, Andrés Serbin writes.

#Valdai_WorldEconomy #BRICS #Argentina

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🇦🇷 In the context of yet another chapter of judicial meddling in the regional politics of Ibero-America, a new political earthquake is taking place in Argentina.

It produces great uncertainty due to the statements of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in which she argued that she would be willing to renounce the continuation of her public aspirations. On December 6, 2022, in the context of an already-altered Argentine political map, another earthquake was added: The Federal Court N°2, in an unprecedented verdict, sentenced Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) to 6 years of imprisonment in addition to a life sentence of disqualification to hold public offices.

In a more regional and global analytical framework, this political earthquake in Argentina can be added to other destabilizing political processes present this year in Mexico, Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.

In these times of struggle for global hegemonic transition, considering the latest events discussed in Argentina, as well as other present processes, the concern for the planning and execution of an Operation Condor 2.0 in Latin and South America is no less worrying. In principle, such a plan to rearrange the "pieces" would have a new format: Hybrid Warfare (disinformation, lawfare, economic warfare, political destabilisation, and support for opposition groups against governments considered "not sufficiently" obedient).

Influence over Ibero-America is a major asset for the status of the United States as the undisputed global superpower, but as the empirical evidence demonstrates, at the economic level (China) and in other aspects such as the perception of public opinion (Russia), the US cannot take its predominance over the region for granted, writes Juan Martin Gonzalez Cabañas, Visiting researcher (MGIMO), political scientist.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/political-earthquake-in-argentina-judicial-meddlin/

#Norms_and_Values #Argentina

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🇧🇷🇷🇺🇮🇳🇨🇳🇿🇦 The XV BRICS Summit in Johannesburg held in August of this year sparked a wide range of expectations regarding its growing weight in the international system.

The Summit’s agenda foresaw two prominent issues to address.

🔹 On one hand, particularly due to movements in favour of using national currencies in trade and financial exchanges among group members and other nations of the Global South, the creation of a common currency to replace the U. S. dollar as the dominant currency appeared as key issues to be addressed.

🔹 On the other hand, the expansion of the bloc to a broader platform, taking into account the numerous requests for entry from countries in the Global South.

The geographical balance of the new additions to BRICS clearly illustrates this intention. However, just like the original group and the currently expanded BRICS+, they present heterogeneities and asymmetries that will likely pose challenges in the future for consensus-building, Andrés Serbin writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/brics-political-and-geopolitical-challenges-a-view/

#EconomicStatecraft #BRICS #BRICS2023 #GlobalSouth #LatinAmerica #Argentina

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🇦🇷 The Argentina of Javier Milei: A Return to the (Wild) 1990s?

Javier Milei was recently elected President of Argentina, having run with a campaign platform promising ultra-liberalisation of the economy, privatisation of major state-owned companies, closure of the Central Bank, and dollarisation of the economy.

Such policies, and their outcomes, are not essentially new for Latin American countries. Similar experiences were fully implemented during the Washington Consensus in the 1990s, including in Argentina itself during Carlos Menem’s government.

Nevertheless, Milei succeeded in orchestrating a campaign that resulted in his victory, emphasising the novelty of these measures and presenting them as the only possible means of overcoming the economic debacle that Argentina has been facing for decades. 

In the Argentine context, deep economic instability, high inflation rates, unemployment, and increasing poverty have fuelled a widespread sense of indignation among the population. It is noteworthy that, amid these challenging conditions, candidates offering simplistic and inadequate solutions to complex problems often garner significant support, Boris Perius Zabolotsky writes.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/argentina-of-javier-milei-a-return-to-the-wild/

#Norms_and_Values #JavierMilei #Argentina

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🇦🇷 Libertarian economist Javier Milei's victory in Argentina has had a significant impact on at least two major issues in Latin America:

🔹 a new geopolitical realignment in the region that could have repercussions on the world stage,

🔹 and the relative rise of the United States and the old power core of the Global North, striving, one way or another, to stop the inevitable fall of their hegemony within the framework of current historical and spatial changes in the world order.

Milei may be aligned with Washington on ideological grounds. This is beneficial for the United States for four reasons:

1️⃣ It helps revive the Monroe Doctrine. December 2, 2023 marked the bicentennial anniversary of this American strategy, the goal of which is to dominate the Americas, appropriate its resources and oust any potential foreign rival (today this means China).

2️⃣ It weakens Brazil’s leftist president, Lula da Silva. A friendly government in Argentina would be a great relief to the leader of the Workers' Party. Moreover, against the backdrop of the hegemonic struggle between powers in the modern world, it would be extremely beneficial for Brazil and Argentina to be on the same page in order for them to coordinate policies with respect to trade, investment, world prices, as well as guaranteeing certain principles of autonomy and sovereignty in international platforms.

3️⃣ It reorganizes the balance of power in the region. Until December 9, 2023, the four most influential and economically significant countries in South America—Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Venezuela—were led by leftist governments. Argentina has made a 180-degree turn, aligning with the libertarian right.

4️⃣ Argentina lost a great opportunity to join BRICS+ on January 1, 2024, an organisation that marks a certain strengthening of the positions of regional forces and represents a serious opportunity for the redistribution of world power. Such defections harm not only Argentina, but also the BRICS+ project itself.

It will soon become clear what results Milei's new foreign policy will lead to, writes Telma Luzzani.

https://valdaiclub.com/a/highlights/argentina-perestroika-under-the-new-government/

#Norms_and_Values #Argentina #UnitedStates

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