ABSTRACT
The last few years have seen a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms denoting clusters of states that are said to be “emerging” or “rising”— e.g. BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa), BRICSAM (BRICS plus Mexico), the BRIICKS (the BRICS plus Indonesia and South Korea), the Next-11 (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Turkey, South Korea and Vietnam), CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa),MINTs (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey), TIMBIs (Turkey, India, Mexico, Brazil and Indonesia), etc. ad nauseam. These are all said to be “breakout nations” on the up.1
