SAO PAULO - Brazil, Russia, India, and China recently held their second annual summit in Brasilia. Journalists continue to lavish attention on these so-called "BRIC" countries, but I remain skeptical of the concept. Goldman Sachs coined the term in 2001 to call attention to profitable opportunities in what it considered "emerging markets." The BRICs' share of world GDP rose from 16% in 2000 to 22% in 2008. Collectively they did better than average in the subsequent global recession. Together, they account for 42% of world population and one-third of global economic growth in the past ten years.
CAMBRIDGE - Will military power become less important in the coming decades? It is true that the num...
