BRICS+ as a Multi-Alignment Strategy for Reducing Western Economic Dependence: Opportunities and Challenges for Madagascar
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59092/aardr.v2i1.23Keywords:
BRICS+, Multi-Alignment, Madagascar, Structural Dependence, New Development Bank, Global SouthAbstract
Madagascar, one of sub-Saharan Africa's most structurally aid-dependent economies, confronts acute and compounding external vulnerabilities following the suspension of United States development assistance and the imposition of a 47 per cent tariff on its exports to the American market in 2025. Against this backdrop, the country's accession to BRICS partner country status in January 2026, facilitated by South Africa's diplomatic sponsorship, marks a potentially consequential pivot in its foreign economic strategy. This article examines how a strategy of multi-alignment towards BRICS+ could serve as a structural lever for reducing Madagascar's chronic economic dependence on Western partners, asking both what the potential economic benefits of this engagement are and what structural challenges attend it. Drawing on multi-alignment theory as its primary analytical framework, the article adopts a qualitative research design grounded in document analysis of institutional reports, policy documents, and peer-reviewed academic literature. The analysis reveals that BRICS+ engagement offers Madagascar tangible opportunities in alternative development financing through the New Development Bank, in trade diversification, and in de-dollarisation mechanisms that collectively challenge the conditionality-laden logic of Western-led international financial institutions. Significant structural challenges nonetheless persist, including institutional capacity deficits, governance vulnerabilities, asymmetric power dynamics within BRICS+, and the risk of substituting one form of dependency for another. The article contributes to the literature by applying multi-alignment theory to a small island developing state in the Global South, a context hitherto underexplored in this strand of scholarship.
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