The BRICS and the United States after 2008 final crisis: alternative to a declining hegemony?

Abstract

The 2008 financial crisis, which started in the United States, had political and economic global effects. As a result, there was a new debate about the United States world hegemony, regarding that the liberal economic model apparently failed with the crisis. This paper will analyze the crisis focusing on the role of BRICS in the international context as a possible objector and reformer of the international system leaded by the United States. In the first part, the ideas of Giovanni Arrighi about hegemony will be developed, with its respective objections. In that sense, theorists like Robert Cox can help with the understanding about possibilities of hegemonic changes in the international order. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye’s ideas on “complex interdependence” will also be used in the theoretical framework, as well as Tim Dunne analysis about the United States and the world order. In the second part, the causes and consequences of the 2008 financial crisis and their relation to the United States hegemony will be analyzed. In the third part, the appearance and evolution of the BRICS group and its hegemonic possibilities will be discussed.