Panic is growing, especially among the Anglo-American establishment, that the expansion of the BRICS as of Jan. 1, 2024 will mean the demise of the dollar. Thomas Hill, the director of the North Africa program at the U.S. Institute of Peace and a former State Department officer whose specialty was also North Africa, warned in an article posted to the BRICS Informational Portal “BRICS-Led De-dollarization Should Alarm the U.S.” on Dec. 26 that greater moves toward de-dollarization are likely to occur with the addition of six new BRICS members and that Washington had better pay attention. It may even require federal intervention through an “interagency process” with Congressional backing, he argues, although doesn’t say more about how that would work.
This is the second article Hill has written on the subject. A Dec. 13 article, appearing on the Atlantic Council’s website, “China’s De-dollarization Message Finds a Receptive Audience in North Africa,” is a much longer, detailed treatise on the likelihood that BRICS expansion will “contaminate” North Africa and Arab countries with de-dollarization. Note that the Atlantic Council has just created a Dollar Dominance Monitor to specifically monitor moves toward de-dollarization in the context of an expanded BRICS.
Hill warns in his BRICS Informational Portal article that because Egypt is about to become one of the new BRICS members, this foreshadows “how North African countries may become some of the most aggressive advocates for de-dollarization.” The BRICS-led de-dollarization effort should alarm U.S. policymakers, he frets. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are already exploring ways to de-dollarize, and “Beijing is helping that process move forward.” Adding six new states to the BRICS creates an “opportunity for greater global coordination,” he worries.
