ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to theorize Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) by focusing on competing theoretical understandings of power transition and hegemony centering around these questions. Particularly, it examines theories that are related to the rise of China and the current global order because China is the most powerful player in BRICS. The chapter aims to relate and extend these theories and their underlying logics to BRICS. Although the theoretical perspectives on the rise of China and the (changing) global order are diverse and highly contested, the main discourse revolves around the question of whether the rise of China will fundamentally challenge and/or reshape the current global order. Although the dominance of neorealist theory has faded in international relations, its underlying logic has been re-invented and is present in various forms in theoretical and public discourses and foreign policy debates.
