This introductory essay situates the subsequent special issue within a comparative framework that helps to unpack the new global politics of development. It argues that there is a set of countries beyond Brazil, Russia, India and China – often described as ‘the BRICs’ – that are emerging...

Much attention has been focused on the BICs (that is, Brazil, India and China) and how they are changing global politics and economics. However, there is also a further tier of emerging, or new, middle powers ‘beyond the BICs’ that are playing a more prominent role in regional and global...

Much attention has been focused on the BICs (that is, Brazil, India and China) and how they are changing global politics and economics. However, there is also a further tier of emerging, or new, middle powers ‘beyond the BICs' that are playing a more prominent role in regional and global...

In September 2010 world leaders will meet in New York to discuss progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include the promise of halving ‘extreme poverty’ between 1990 and 2015. The paper begins with a brief history of how the MDGs came into being (See Table 1...

In September 2010 world leaders will meet in New York to discuss progress in meeting the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which include the promise of halving ‘extreme poverty’ between 1990 and 2015. The paper begins with a brief history of how the MDGs came into being (See Table 1...

Few concepts have captured the imagination of the conflict and development communities in recent years as powerfully as the idea of a 'political settlement'. At its most ambitious, 'political settlements analysis' (PSA) promises to explain why conflicts occur and states collapse, the conditions...