The Age of Capability: Performance Has a Price
BRICS is often discussed as an alternative power bloc.
It should instead be examined as a capability claim—one that fails under even light scrutiny.
Consider the simplest stress test:
coercive reach without total war.
Consider the simplest stress test:
coercive reach without total war.
The United States has repeatedly demonstrated the ability to apply asymmetric pressure—financial, logistical, and political—far from its borders, without escalation to full-scale conflict.
Now invert the lens.
Russia cannot do to Ukraine what the United States has done in Iran—
even though Russia would have far more incentive to try.
China cannot do to Taiwan what the United States has done in Venezuela —
even though China has both economic exposure and strategic motive.
That asymmetry matters.
Not because of ideology.
Not because of moral framing.
But because capability reveals itself under incentive.
If an actor needs to act and still cannot, the limitation is structural.
Military parades do not close this gap.
Joint statements do not close this gap.
The capability vs claim framing is sharp. The insight that Russia can't replicate US pressure tactics in Ukraine despite higher stakes cuts through alot of noise about multipolarity. I've noticed in defense circles how easy it is to conflate signaling capacity (joint drills, payment rails) with actual projecton power under constraints. The Iran/Venezuela parallels are especially telling because they expose not just resource gaps but coordination and institutional depth issues. Dunno if BRICS can build that without decades more integration.