As the BRICS prepare to launch the New Development Bank, Fernando Menéndez explores the political and economic factors motivating its creation and what it might imply for Latin America.

With the launch of the New Development Bank, Curtis S. Chin provides four recommendations the BRICS should consider when creating the international financial institution.

The most recent BRICS summit was noteworthy for generating the first concrete collective initiatives in the group’s history. Whereas the BRICS past meetings and had yielded mostly joint declarations, the July 15 summit in Brazil saw them launch two high-profile financial initiatives. Perhaps even more important, they seem prepared to undertake other collective projects in the energy and nonproliferation realms.