8.12B Political Tensions in Emerging Nations

• • There are significant political tensions in the BRIC and other emerging nations resulting from the uneven pattern of the costs and benefits of globalisation
  • In some instances, these uneven, internal regional or ethnic divisions threaten to dis-unify nation-states
• Internal tensions within the BRICS: Brazil

  • Divisions arose over the costs of hosting of the World Cup (2014) and the Olympic Games (2016). Protesters argued that the money would have been better spent in alleviating poverty. 
  • Indigenous communities of the Amazon are facing loss of ancestral land from land
  • Bolsonaro elected in 2019, divided Brazilian society on a wide range of issues from anti-LGBT rights and support for deforestation
• Internal tensions within the BRICS: Russia

  • Internal tensions on Russian nationalism are a phenomenon that have political, social and cultural dimensions and many link back to the era of the Soviet Union
  • Russification was a policy of enforcing Russian culture on the vast numbers of ethnic minorities that lived in Russia.
  • It involved promoting Russian language, religion, education, and administration over other cultures and suppressing their rights and identities. 
• Internal tensions within the BRICS: India

  • There are long-standing tensions between the Hindi majority and Muslim minority
  • Kashmir in the northwest is a difficult region to control and is disputed with Pakistan
  • Several separatist movements in the northeast of the country Tripura, Nagaland and Mizoram
• Internal tensions within the BRICS: China

  • Separatist pressure exists in Tibet where the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group live, resulting in the Chinese government constructing 're-education camps' (Potential genocide)
  • Internally, there is large rural to urban migration and the hukou system has resulted in migrants not having full rights when they move to urban areas.
  • Hong Kong has seen pro-democracy protests as a response to Beijing's move to exert more control within the semi-autonomous region. China's new National Security Law (2020) effectively gives control over Hong Kong