The Geopolitical and Economic Implications of the BRICS Expansion

Daniel Drezner

Professor of International Politics

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Daniel Drezner is Professor of International Politics, a nonresident senior fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Co-Director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at The Fletcher School. Prior to joining Fletcher, he taught at the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado at Boulder. He has previously held positions with Civic Education Project, the RAND Corporation, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and he has received fellowships from the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Council on Foreign Relations, and Harvard University. He has written seven books, including All Politics is Global (2009) and Theories of International Politics and Zombies (2011), and edited three others, including The Uses and Abuses of Weaponized Interdependence (2021). He has published articles in numerous scholarly journals as well as in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, and Foreign Affairs, and has been a regular contributor to Foreign Policy and The Washington Post. He received his B.A. in political economy from Williams College and an M.A. in economics and Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University.

Mihaela Papa

Senior Fellow

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Mihaela Papa is a Senior Fellow at The Fletcher School, where she has co-founded and led the Rising Power Alliances project and served as faculty in sustainable development and global governance. She is an expert in negotiation strategy and coalition building, with a focus on BRICS and the transition to sustainability. Papa started her BRICS research as postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School and a visiting scholar at Fudan University's Center for BRICS Studies. Her recent publications analyze BRICS convergence and BRICS-US relations (EJIR, 2023), whether BRICS can de-dollarize global finance (CUP 2022 and ISA-West award), and BRICS resilience (Global Policy 2021). Her publications on environmental foreign policy, climate diplomacy, and global governance appeared in Global Environmental Politics, Global Environmental Change, Climate Policy, and other journals. Papa is also an active practitioner with a proven track record advising institutions on global strategies and leading international collaborations and programs. She has previously worked at MIT and at the Croatian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she has consulted for the U.S. government, the European Commission, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. Originally a trade economist with a B.A. from Croatia, she completed her M.A. in Law and Diplomacy and Ph.D. in International Relations at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.

Abiodun Williams

Professor of the Practice of International Politics

The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University

Abiodun Williams is a scholar and international affairs practitioner who has held leadership positions in academia, think tanks, and the United Nations. He is Professor of the Practice of International Politics at The Fletcher School and the Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University. He was also Director of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University from 2017 to 2022. He served as President of The Hague Institute for Global Justice from 2013 to 2016. The Hague Institute was shortlisted for the 2014 Prospect European Think Tank of the Year Award. From 2008 to 2012, Dr. Williams served at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) first as Vice President of the Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention, and later as Senior Vice President of the Center for Conflict Management. He led USIP's work on prevention and in major conflict zones, including Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Libya. From 2001 to 2007, Dr. Williams served as Director of Strategic Planning for UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-Moon. He gained valuable field operational experience, serving with the UN from 1994 to 2000 in peacekeeping operations in the Balkans and Haiti in senior political and humanitarian roles. He has served as Associate Dean of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., and held faculty appointments at the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and the University of Rochester. Dr. Williams has furthered his impact on international affairs and education through service on several boards. He was Chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS), and a member of the UN Secretary-General's Advisory Board on Disarmament Matters, the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Justice, the U.S.-Netherlands Fulbright Commission, the Lester Pearson College UWC Board of Trustees, and the International Board of Directors of the United World Colleges. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Award from Tufts University and the Constantine E. Maguire Medal from Georgetown University.