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It is the general view that the BRICS countries, as a group, are disadvantaged because of their diversity. The BRICS organization itself is somewhat unique since it covers countries that are not only very distant geographically but also very different socially, politically, and culturally. Can birds of a different feather really flock together? This article tries to show that they can, and that conventional wisdom is wrong. Going further still, we show that rather than preventing the BRICS from functioning efficiently as a group, the very diversity of its component parts in fact strengthens, in the BRICS countries themselves, the group’s effectiveness as a vehicle for soft power diplomacy within the international system. More generally, this can also explain how the influence of international organizations can grow if there is greater diversity among their members.