So it was a real pleasure to invite MIT’s Mihaela Papa into the Virtual Studio to talk about the consequences of the recent BRICS Summit in Brazil and the shape and influence going forward of this now enlarged BRICS or BRICS+.
Mihaela is the director of research and a principal research scientist at the Center for International Studies (CIS) at MIT. She joined CIS from the Fletcher School at Tufts University. Mihaela is an expert in negotiation strategy and coalition-building. She leads the BRICS Lab and has published widely on BRICS, including its evolution as a soft-balancing coalition (International Affairs, 2025), the BRICS Convergence Index and BRICS–U.S. relations (European Journal of International Relations, 2023), and the BRICS potential to de-dollarize global finance (Cambridge Elements, 2022).
Mihaela focuses on the BRICS and rising powers in global governance, as well as climate transitions.