Dan Steinbock — The $17 Trillion Dollar Brics Shift That Few Noticed

Unlike the G7 nations, which garnered their early prosperity through colonialism, the BRICS nations are the ones that suffered dearly from that very same colonialism. Due to their later starting-point in economic development, the prosperity levels of these nations are significantly lower than those of their counterparts in the advanced world. As a result, they have similar views about international economy, politics and governance.

And the G-7 is still enmeshed in the imperial and colonial mindset that morphed to neoliberalism, neo-imperialism and neocolonialism.

Collision course.

EconoMonitor
The $17 Trillion Dollar Brics Shift That Few Noticed

Dan Steinbock, research director of international business at the India, China and America Institute (USA) a visiting fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies (China) and at EU Center (Singapore)

See also

Pragmatic, Gradual Privatization of Chinese State-Owned Enterprises

teleSUR — Climate Change Poses 'Enormous' Security Threat

Climate change is a global threat to security in the 21st century, according to a new report commissioned by the G-7. 

Climate change presents “security risks (that) are potentially enormous,” Dan Smith, secretary general of International Alert warned Tuesday. Smith is the author of a new G-7 report, “A new climate for peace.” 

The study says climate change poses such a significant threat to global security that world leaders should make it a core part of their foreign policy agendas....

In the agreement, the G-7 leaders supported a reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions within a range recommended by the United Nations climate change panel, and backed a global target for limiting the rise in average global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (36 Fahrenheit) compared with pre-industrial levels. 

However, scientists warn that the world is currently heading for a catastrophic 5 degrees Celsius of warming.

teleSUR
Climate Change Poses 'Enormous' Security Threat

Chen Yonglong and Xue Junying — Where’s the new China-US-Russia triangle headed?

The just-concluded G7 summit passed a leaders’ declaration that condemns Chinese and Russian attempts to “change status quo” with force. It claims that G7 nations “are concerned by tensions in the East and South China Seas”, “strongly oppose the use of intimidation, coercion or force, as well as any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo, such as large-scale land reclamation”; and it reiterates condemnation of illicit annexation of Crimea. The declaration can be read as the United States’ latest stance regarding China and Russia, which has attracted global interest: Will the U.S. take on two world powers, China and Russia in this case, simultaneously with two fists? Where will the new China-U.S.-Russia triangle be headed?

Before discussing these two questions, we have three others to answer: Has the U.S. declined? Has Russia recovered? Has China risen?...

China.org.cn
Where’s the new China-US-Russia triangle headed?

Chen Yonglong, Director of Center of American Studies, China Foundation for International Studies, and Xue Junying, Research Fellow of Center of American Studies, China Foundation for International Studies.

This article was first published at Chinausfocus.com To see the original version please visit http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/wheres-the-new-china-u-s-russia-triangle-headed/

Liu Zongyi — Rich-man’s club risks Cold War obsolescence

The G7 summit concluded in Germany last week. Chinese scholars and media barely showed any interest to this outdated informal institution, except for a Declaration on Maritime Security issued by G7 foreign ministers. The declaration expressed their concerns on "unilateral actions" in the South China Sea, with China as the obvious target.

Judging from the agenda and outcomes of this year's G7 summit, it has run counter to the global trend of peace, development and cooperation and become mere of a geopolitical tool.

Since the very beginning of the establishment of the G7, it has been a rich-man's club that consists of Western major powers and aims to maintain the collective hegemony of the US-led West. It used to focus on the world's economic issues, and then extended to political and security affairs. After the Cold War, Russia was included in this grouping, which almost became the core of global governance and looked as though it might replace the UN Security Council.

However, the other G7 members never treated Russia as an equal partner. Russia was only entitled to discuss politics and security but not financial and economic issues.

As the world entered the 21st century, new economies started to emerge and the world's political and economic center has gradually shifted to the Asia-Pacific. The 2008 global financial crisis forced G7 members into a stalemate, and these nations started to realize that they could only get rid of the crisis with the help of emerging economies. Therefore, the US proposed defining the G20 as the main platform to discuss international economic problems. Within the G20, although the G7, as a sub group, intends to dominate the agenda-setting, the G7 cannot play its role without cooperation from new economies whose voices can be heard more nowadays.

Yet countries such as the US and Japan can hardly accept the rising international status of emerging economies and are reluctant to give up their hegemony. When the financial crisis eased slightly, Western media vigorously propagated the "revival" of the G7. But the economic performance of G7 members meant the summit was a gathering of debtors.
To some extent, the role of the G7 in global economic governance is negative. The IMF and the World Bank are under the control of G7 members. This is one of the reasons for the low implementation capacity of the G20....

Whether the G7 will become a geopolitical tool or a Cold War relic largely depends on European countries. Unlike the US, Europe shares a closer geopolitical and economic links with Russia. If the G7 becomes a platform for the confrontation between the West and Russia, it will undoubtedly be a disaster for Europe. Seeking a peaceful solution to the Ukrainian crisis with Russia fits European interests. As for the East and South China Sea disputes thousands of kilometers away from the European continent, these countries needn't necessarily get involved.

During the G7 summit, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe tried to pull European countries to Japan's anti-China bandwagon. China should continue to stay wary of the Japanese government....

Hard to know just how much to read into this. Global Times is a subsidiary of a state owned firm. It's offered as opinion but it likely reflects the official position or at least doesn't contradict it. Anyway, it seems that China is not pleased with what it sees as the antics of an obsolescent G-7.

Global Times (PRC) | Opinion
Rich-man’s club risks Cold War obsolescence
Liu Zongyi | research fellow of Shanghai Institutes for International Studies and a visiting fellow of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies, Renmin University of China

Interfax — West loses tool of pressure on Russia after its withdrawal from G7 – Pushkov

In the opinion of Pushkov, the West is retiring into its own shell. 

“In the middle of the 1990s, Samuel Huntington, the author of the famed book, The Clash of Civilizations, said that the world was unstoppably sliding into a condition of opposition between the West and the rest of the world. He expressed that condition with a formula, ‘The West against the rest’. Now his forecast is coming true,” Pushkov said.

Johnson's Russia List
Interfax: West loses tool of pressure on Russia after its withdrawal from G7 – Pushkov

Interfax