The EU's Neighbourhood and the BRICS: Security Implications | Clingendael |

The   neighbourhood stretches from Eastern Europe to the Caucasus, and the Western Balkans through the MENA region. Towards all of the countries in its vicinity, the EU adopts its customary approach of conditionality, hoping (and expecting) that the lure of trade and/or accession will strengthen the rule of law and human rights in the countries involved. The effectiveness of this strategy has declined in recent years, since the political elites in the EU's neighbourhood are no longer convinced that joining the EU is possible in the near future, or indeed that EU membership remains the attractive prospect that it once was. This has opened the way for a more assertive presence by third players, which include several countries belonging to the BRICS group, but also Gulf states such as the UAE and Qatar.

This chapter examines the security implications of the BRICS challenge to the EU's comfortable position as the 'only game in town', both economically and politically. Is the BRICS' alignment mainly a 'power-multiplier' for the national interests of individual BRICS members, or does it offer a real alternative to the liberal Western order for countries that used to be squarely in the EU's strategic orbit?