Brazil, Russia, India, and China

Daniel W. Drezner reports that "what started out as a Goldman Sachs marketing term has turned into a genuine coalition" — Dropping BRIC's. After noting that "[t]he dollar fell against all major currencies after the BRIC leaders called for a 'more diversified currency system' in their communiqué," the author writes:

Could the BRIC grouping represent a real balancing coalition against the United States? This might answer a question that has bedeviled most realists for the past two decades—why has there been no realpolitik balancing against the United States? Over the past twenty years, the United States has bombed six different countries, coerced others into adopting its preferred economic policies and declared a war on terror. The absence of balancing has driven some realists to distraction.