Voting Cohesion of the BRICS Countries in the UN General Assembly, 2006−2014: A BRICS Too Far?

© 2016, Lynne Rienner Publishers. All rights reserved. In July 2014 during the sixth BRICS summit, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa launched the Fortaleza Declaration and Action Plan, suggesting a further intensification and institutionalization of their cooperation in the field of foreign policy, including within the framework of the United Nations. This article examines the extent to which the intensification of BRICS cooperation in the field of foreign policy is reflected in their voting patterns in the UN General Assembly. It presents an original dataset of the degree of voting cohesion among the five BRICS countries. It demonstrates that, overall, there is no significant increase in the degree of voting cohesion since the start of the consultations in the BRIC framework in 2006.