ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the literature on the development of international relations (IR) in the four original Brazil, Russia, India, and China countries (BRIC). The analysis of each country proceeds chronologically by tracing the historical evolution of IR in each country leading up to its “rise”. The chapter focuses on the possible connection between their “rise” in international politics and the evolution of their IR disciplines, particularly the development of IR theory. The literature shows that rising powers generally have experienced improved material conditions for theorizing because the growth of the BRIC economies has led to increased funding and expansion of their research and higher education sectors. Some of this funding is allocated to IR and, therefore, all four countries have experienced an immense growth in the number of IR scholars, institutions, and journals, and in funding and international travel since the 1990s.
