Click here to access article by Vijay Prashad from CounterPunch.
The US Empire is increasingly feeling the presence of the "five challengers" or the BRIC countries who are flexing their economic muscles. Because these countries are ruled by capitalist classes, I doubt that there is anything progressive about this except that they act as a counter-force to the aggressive Empire that is on a rampage across much of the globe.
One thing that was brought to my attention in the article is how the Empire has organized non-UN economic organizations to pursue their neo-liberal policies just like they have used NATO to pursue military operations that the UN would not endorse. The political operatives of the Empire are willing to use the UN when they can control it; but when it poses obstacles for them, they ignore it and use alternative organizations such as NATO and "coalitions of the willing".