Abstract
Much has been written about BRICS in terms of its many dimensions, and research on this
phenomenon continues. However, these studies tend to exclude how BRICS organises itself
as an effective bloc to navigate complex global power dynamics, particularly in terms of global
financial and economic governance. Furthermore, many published works tend to exclude the
role of the New Development Bank (NDB) in intra-BRICS coordination and planning beyond
its function as a development finance institution (DFI). My study on the BRICS and the NDB is
located in the debates on the global political economy, power and hegemony, and geopolitics.
This study examines the evolution of BRICS and the New Development Bank in their effort to
fulfil reform and development agendas. It develops an understanding of the extent to which
BRICS may be fit for its purpose, a subject of critique since its formation, with the NDB as a
key factor. It does this by first developing a contextual understanding of the global conditions
in which the BRICS bloc pursues its agenda, the limitations of its internal arrangements, and
the contribution of the NDB. The study deploys Marxian instruments adapted by Gramsci to
analyse the approach adopted by the BRICS bloc and the concept of structural power argued
by Susan Strange to analyse the external environment to which the bloc’s approach must and
does respond. Questions on whether the bloc is reformist, its decision-making mechanism
and model, grand strategy, and planning, among other areas, are discussed with the NDB as
a key feature. The study concludes that the bloc does have a grand strategy with mechanisms
to support its operationally, and the NDB as a vehicle in chief. The study also finds shortfalls
in communication and praxis that can be resolved by a deeper engagement of the base and
superstructure.