Independent presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday blamed the U.S. for the rising clout of the BRICS, an emerging markets alliance, and the increasing interest among global nations to join the coalition.
What Happened: Reacting to a news story about 59 nations knocking at the doors of BRICS, Kennedy said this shouldn’t be seen as a threat but as a wake-up call. In a post on X, formerly Twitter, he mulled over the reasons for many countries striving to exit the “American sphere of influence.”
The presidential candidate sees this as the result of the U.S. squandering its moral authority through “militarism, colonial-style exploitation, and economic warfare.” He also promised that, if elected, he would work towards rectifying this. “I will turn this around by turning our resources toward rebuilding the homeland and making America once again the envy of the world for its freedom, clean government, and prosperity,” he said.
The rallying cry resembles that of his rival Donald Trump, who has vouched to “Make America Great Again.”
See Also: How to Invest in BRICS
Why It’s Important: The BRICS alliance, which originally comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, later went on to expand, adding Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and UAE to its members’ list. It accounts for 45% of the world population and over 25% of the global GDP, and represents a fundamental threat to the American economy, said Greg Zerzan, an attorney and former acting assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, in an article published in the Rippon Forum in April.
He noted that the coalition, through its New Development Bank set up in 2014, is trying to expand lending throughout Asia, Africa and South America, and this institution is increasingly emerging as an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank. The BRICS is also toying with the idea of an alternative currency to the U.S. dollar, currently the world’s principal reserve currency.
On the other hand, the U.S.’s dominant position in the global order is facing risk. The results of a multi-country survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank and Oxford University published late last year showed that “many nations no longer feel they have to be aligned to just one major power.”
Many outside of the West value American and European ways of life but they have doubts about whether the liberal society will survive. They expect the E.U. to fall apart within the next 20 years and the U.S. to cease to be a democracy by the same timeframe.
Kennedy, who is contesting as an independent, is a distant third to Trump and Joe Biden, the presumptive presidential candidates of the two major parties, according to opinion polls. The 70-year candidate, a nephew of former President John F Kennedy, is an environmental lawyer, anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist.
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