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What do all those acronyms stand for?

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | MARCH/APRIL 2012

When Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill named the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China "BRICs" in 2001, he didn't realize he was creating a major new geopolitical term, one that would even be turned into a formal alliance by the countries themselves. (They capitalized the "S" when South Africa joined in 2010.) He also probably didn't realize he was creating a new cottage industry of acronyms. Here's a guide to today's post-BRIC alphabet soup of global economics. BASIC Stands for: Brazil, South Africa, India, China Created by: The countries themselves Why: The BASIC group emerged at the 2009 Copenhagen climate-change conference to present a counterproposal putting more obligations on rich countries to cut carbon emissions. Cooperation

continued into subsequent rounds of climate talks in Mexico and South Africa. MIKT Stands for: Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea, Turkey Created by: Jim O'Neill Why: O'Neill didn't rest on his laurels following the hugely successful BRICs branding. In early 2011, he unveiled MIKT, arguing that the term "emerging markets" to describe these countries was simply no longer useful. It hasn't stuck quite as well.

NORCs Stands for: Northern rim countries -- Canada, Russia, Scandinavia, and the northern United States Created by: University of California/Los Angeles geographer Laurence C. Smith Why: Smith believes access to shipping lanes opened up by the melting of Arctic ice, combined with abundant oil and natural gas resources, will make the Arctic countries the pivotal powers of the late 21st century. PIGS Stands for: Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain Why: It's not clear who coined the unflattering nickname, which groups the worstperforming European economies, but it's become widespread during the euro crisis and is sometimes spelled "PIIGS" to include Ireland. TIMBI Stands for: Turkey, India, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia Created by: George Mason University professor Jack Goldstone Why: Goldstone argued in a 2011 ForeignPolicy.com article that economic growth in Russia and China would be hampered by shrinking working-aged populations, so India and Brazil should more accurately be placed with countries that boast growing economies and populations.
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SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP/Getty Images OMAR TORRES/AFP/Getty Images MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/AFP/Getty Images MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP/Getty Images

Joshua E. Keating is an associate editor at Foreign Policy.

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