The Brics summit earlier this month produced a managed consensus while tip-toeing around key disagreements, exemplifying the different directions geopolitics could head in. For example, despiteIran and the United Arab Emirates being on opposing sides of the Gulf war, the summit still found language that both could sign. Mark Swilling of Stellenbosch’s Sustainability Institute points out that the diplomatic language, described as “strategic ambiguity”, also allowed Russia to get away with censure regarding the Ukraine war.

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