The West and the BRICs: The Challenge of Global Governance

Transworld: Kick off meeting is a consortium of 13 academic and research centres from the EU, the US and Turkey formed to research the evolution of the transatlantic relation-ship and its role in shaping global governance architectures. It was publicly launched on April 20th during a conference in Rome.

In a world in flux, characterized by the emergence of new powers and the overall fragmentation of the international system, the traditional leadership role of the European Union and the United States in global governance is being increasingly disputed. The future of the transatlantic relationship cannot, therefore, fail to re-invent itself by seeking new forms of engagement with emerging (or emerged) powers, notably the so-called BRICS – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – , which claim more and more new (and independent) global responsibilities.

Transworld – which is mainly funded under the European Union's 7th Framework Programme - will seek to provide, in its three and half year life-span, the theoretical and empirical fundamentals of a new paradigm to interpret the transatlantic relationship. The question, therefore - as the two project coordinators, Nathalie Tocci, IAI Deputy director, and Riccardo Alcaro, IAI Senior fellow, pointed out - is whether the traditional US-EU cooperation is going through a phase of gradual decline, or whether, instead, it is simply evolving into a new form of partnership.

The new challenge of global governance will play out on several fronts: from economics to security, democracy to national policy, which, according to Sergio Fabbrini, Director of the Luiss School of Government, is the true starting point for the interpretation of a new transatlantic relationship. Last but not least, human rights, in the opinion of the various speakers, represents the BRICS - are essential for dialogue between the various powers (emerging or not) in the evolving international system.