BRICS was formed to counterbalance the G7. While the G7 holds its annual summit in May, BRICS holds its own each September. This past weekend, leaders of an 11-nation bloc gathered in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit, and the joint declaration, as expected, keeps advocating a “multipolar world.”

It’s worth asking, plainly: is this a fortress under construction, or a bubble still waiting to pop? The honest answer is that BRICS has real mass, but mass is not the same as real teeth. Set against the G7, three cracks run through the foundation, and none of them will be repairable any time soon.