The Rise of the BRICS in Africa: The Geopolitics of South-South Relations.

• Author: Engin, Belma
• Position: Book review

The Rise of the BRICS in Africa: The Geopolitics of South-South Relations

By Padraig Carmody

London: Zed Books, 2013, 176 pages, $29.95, ISBN 9781780326047.

The notable rising of a select group of developing countries paves the way for new multilateral structures in global governance, like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). The Rise of the BRICS in Africa: The Geopolitics of South-South Relations by Padraig Carmody explores the observable engagements and impacts of the BRICS countries in Africa, within the context of their new globalization models and South-South relations. In Carmody's book, different globalization strategies of the BRICS powers in Africa are analyzed in individual chapters. The book is structured this way because the five BRICS states have different economic structures, historical legacies, ideologies and interests.

Carmody states in the introduction of the book that the increasing influence of BRICS makes the five countries more vocal in their demands for change in global governance and geopolitics dominated by the West. According to Carmody, the BRICS' rising influence plays a prominent role in their engagement with Africa, as a new "South Space" phenomenon. This original South Space concept refers to an imaginary region, "defined by history, material flows, and purportedly more equal and less exploitative social relations than those characteristics of NorthSouth relations" (p. 11). Based on changes in global governance, the "new" South Space is characterized by cooperation for mutual development, winwin strategies, emphasis on sovereignty, and non-interference. The author also claims that understanding the cultural dimensions of the BRICS powers' rise in Africa is a sine qua non for understanding South-South relations or even the South Space itself. The remaining five chapters of the book are organized around these arguments by examining each BRICS power individually in relation to their different globalization strategies in Africa.

Carmody's second chapter explains China's globalization model in Africa through a case study of Zambia. At first, readers might wonder how Zambia could clarify the whole Chinese engagement in Africa on its own. Yet the book is partially successful in making its argument; the case of Zambia demonstrates Chinese "flexipower" (p. 33) on the continent, which includes soft power elements and a "flexeconomy" (p. 6) approach, which means no conditionality and no strings attached...