Abstract

By raising the question on what made geopolitical equilibrium a tool for understanding international politics, the article discusses differences between classical and modern balance of power, and between balance of power and geopolitical equilibrium. The principal argument is that geopolitical equilibrium is, in scope, global. The second claim about the nature of geopolitical equilibrium concerns modern territoriality. Geopolitical equilibrium bases on occurrence of central powers in global politics, not on modern inter-state relations; therefore, it represents the tendency to stability in a pluralistic world-system. As a result, geopolitics remains a realistic alternative to cosmopolitism for understanding social order in global age.