By Evan Ward, Fall 2024 Marcellus Policy Fellow

The degree to which multipolarity is relevant on the international stage is, among some, underappreciated. Since assuming global leadership at the end of World War II, the United States has often overextended and made decisions in pursuit of short-term gains without consideration of long-term risks. In the past decade, the consequences of those poor decisions have begun to come to fruition in the form of multipolarity.

To evaluate this phenomenon, one should look at the flagship institution representing it—the BRICS. The members of this bloc are among those dissatisfied with what the United States has to offer and are seeking to build alternative institutions and systems. Those who downplay the BRICS’s relevance seem to expect a challenge to the U.S.-led world order to develop as the latter did—with extreme speed and little opposition. However, this expectation is unreasonable. To demonstrate as much, this work will describe the history of the rise of the United States compared with the context in which the BRICS is emerging. It will then provide two examples of how U.S. foreign policy has, at times, undermined American influence and how the United States should seek to improve its foreign policy.