Lere Amusan, Thulisile Mphambukeli and Victor O. Okorie

DOI: https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-7092.2019.08.140

Published: 31 December 2019

Abstract: Food security is one of the major problems that BRICS is contending with in this age of accelerated climate change and varnishing territories. Cooperation among member states of BRICS is pivotal to addressing the problems of food security. Natural resources and economic, strategic and political imperatives that some members of BRICS are sharing directly or indirectly through the Western Indian Ocean (WIO,) therefore, need academic interrogation. Before the formation of BRICS, Russia, India, China and South Africa are very active participants in the politics and strategic arrangements of the third-largest ocean (Indian Ocean) in the global system. The activities of these participants have implications for the IO’s blue economy and for food security. Employing interdependence theory of liberal school, this paper concludes that international regimes like BRICS need to articulate and implement new guidelines for sustainable exploitation of the WIO resources. In doing so, BRICS would save the ocean from overfishing perpetuated by the technologically advanced states like China as well as checkmate the ongoing plastic dumping in the ocean, which is threatening the livelihood of littoral communities.

Keywords: BRICS, WIO, Food security, Blue economy, Climate change, Plastic dumping.

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