In New Delhi this weekend, the leaders of BRICS gather under the familiar banners of solidarity and shared purpose — yet the gathering arrives at a moment when the bloc's internal contradictions can no longer be quietly managed. Wars abroad and energy prices at home have exposed the difference between a coalition of convenience and a coalition of conviction. Whether nations bound by economic aspiration but divided by geopolitical reality can sustain a meaningful alternative to the Western-led order is the deeper question this summit forces into the open.