Tuesday’s BRICS agreement on forming a rival institution to the IMF and World Bank may one day be looked back on as a seminal moment in the decline of the post-WWII international order. Here there’s a message that’s plain for all to see: the developing world has rejected the long-held idea that emerging countries could be absorbed into pre-existing regimes and reform them from within. As soon as 2016, there will be two separate institutional blocs with an overlapping global mandate of eliminating poverty and ensuring economic stability.

But what does this actually mean for the future of global politics?