UNIPOLARITY, BIPOLARITY, AND MULTIPOLARITY IN GLOBAL POLITICS

Abstract

This article examines the three principal structural configurations of international order — unipolarity, bipolarity, and multipolarity — as analytical categories in the theory of international relations and as competing descriptions of the contemporary global distribution of power. Drawing on the classical realist and neorealist traditions associated with Kenneth Waltz, John Mearsheimer, and William Wohlforth, as well as on more recent contributions from liberal institutionalist and constructivist scholarship, the study traces the theoretical properties attributed to each polar configuration, evaluates the historical evidence for their respective claims about systemic stability and conflict propensity, and applies these frameworks to the rapidly evolving distribution of material and institutional power that characterises world politics in the third decade of the twenty-first century. The article argues that while the unipolar moment that followed the Cold War has given way to an increasingly contested and multipolar distribution of capabilities, the conceptual vocabulary of polarity — properly refined to account for the growing importance of economic interdependence, technological competition, and institutional contestation — remains indispensable for understanding the dynamics of great power rivalry and the prospects for international order.