The course examines ongoing developments in the international political and economic stage with regard to the emergence of new states, such as Brazil, India and China. It focuses on the ways by which a range of emerging states have managed to substantially strengthen their positions on the world stage, thereby leading to a de facto reorganisation of the system of global governance. It puts emphasis on the economic and political choices of these states during the last decades, as well as the global environment that facilitated their emergence, assessing developments in international organisations and fora such as the UN, the WTO, the G-20, the World Bank, etc.