Article 2: To Ensure Its Growth And Maintain Its Position as An Economic Powerhouse, a Nation Needs To Impose Rules, In Many Cases By Force.

Pillar of support for economic powerhouses – competition in the purchase of jet fighters

Revisiting recent history, China was the protagonist in several extremely critical moments regarding human rights. We can recall as the most striking the “Tiananmen Square protests of 1989”, when approximately 800 civilians died, or even the Buddhist monks arrest, in 2009, for protests against the Chinese occupation of Tibet.

What retaliations were imposed by countries that advocate for human rights? Virtually none. Only speeches were delivered by its leaders, without strong actions or economic blockades.

Mikhail Saakashvili, elected president of Georgia, when was trying to recover the domain of the mountainous territory of South Ossetia in 2009, in Caucasus region, had his country invaded by Russia and, without capability to react, signed the ceasefire agreeing in keep South Ossetia independent. Although Mikhail was an ally and friend of George W. Bush, the United States limited its action to diplomatic criticism addressed to Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, trusted man of former Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin.

As we can see, Russia and China are both, doubtless, great military powerhouses, and that’s one reason that explains why eventual criticism on them didn’t go further than a mere speech.

All this mentioned countries have technology to project and produce top notch armaments. China recently presented the J-10 (Jian-10), a multirole fighter aircraft designed by Chengdu Aircraft Industry, part of China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I). They also announced the development of the J-12 which will have technology similar to the F-22 Raptor, last generation jet fighter, developed by United States Air Force (USAF). F-22 Raptor becomes the fighter in the USAF supremacy, replacing F-15, manufactured by Boeing, same manufacturer of the F-18. We must remember that the F-18 is participant of the FX-2; being a fourth generation jet fighter which project started in the ’70s and had its first flight in November 1978.

India, also seeking economic powerhouse status, designed with Russia a fifth generation jet fighter, developed by the companies HAL and Sukhoi, its first flight is set to 2017. According to the designers, the aircraft will have a combat capability similar to the F-22.

We can notice that all this countries have their initials embedded in BRIC. BRIC is an acronym coined in November 2001 by the economist Jim O’Neill, former head of global economic research at Goldman Sachs, to designate, on the paper Building Better Global Economic BRICs, the four major emerging countries in the world: Brazil, Russia, India and China.

From BRIC, only Brazil doesn’t have capacity to develop design and construction of a supersonic fighter of fourth or fifth generation. Therefore it still needs to progress in this matter to ensure its place as a powerhouse. Despite being the third largest aviation industry in the world, led by Embraer, Brazil has not started developing an air superiority aircraft that can guarantee sovereignty in Brazilian airspace.

The nations of BRIC, excepting Brazil, are investing in their armed forces through development of top notch weapons, ensuring their growth as an economic powerhouse.

In the next article we will analyze the investment of BRIC’s members and of the United States, trying to understand how the dynamic of relation between economic and military powers works.