Editorial: Power, Order, and Governance in an Age of Multipolarity

Efe Can Gürcan (ORCID ID: 0000-0002-5415-3163)

Received: 18 Jun 2026 | Accepted: 18 Jun 2026 | Published online: 20 Jun 2026

How to cite this article: Gürcan, E. C. (2026). Editorial: Power, Order, and Governance in an Age of Multipolarity. Global Geopolitics, 1(2), 150–152.

DOI: 10.64901/29778271.2026.017

Few relationships will play a greater role in shaping the future of international order than that between the United States and China. As the world’s two largest economies and most influential global actors, the manner in which they manage their differences, expand areas of cooperation, and sustain channels of dialogue will have profound implications for international peace, economic stability, and shared prosperity. In an increasingly interconnected world, fostering a virtuous cycle of constructive engagement remains essential not only for bilateral relations but also for the broader health and resilience of the international system. It is within this wider context of global transformation that the questions explored in this issue acquire particular significance.

With its second issue, Global Geopolitics continues its commitment to fostering rigorous, pluralistic, and genuinely global debates on the transformation of world order. The contributions assembled here examine multipolarity not only as a redistribution of power among states, but also as a transformation unfolding across diplomatic, economic, technological, legal, and cultural domains. Taken together, they speak to a shared concern: how power, order, and governance are being reconfigured under conditions of accelerating multipolarity. In doing so, the issue advances our core editorial ambition: to move beyond reductive binaries and inherited categories, and to develop analytically grounded perspectives capable of grasping a world no longer organized around a single center of authority.

The issue opens with “China’s Rise as a Pole in a Multipolarizing World: An Overview of its Evolving Diplomacy” by Jenny Clegg. Situating China’s diplomacy within its long-standing engagement with the developing world, Clegg traces the country’s evolution from survival-oriented diplomacy to a more proactive international role. The article highlights the importance of South–South cooperation and the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, while arguing that China’s global posture is best understood not as a bid for hegemony but as part of a broader transformation of the Global South’s place in world politics.

The second contribution, “Emerging Forms of Multipolarity: Rethinking Global Stability and Governance,” by Arunoday Bajpai and Preeti Sharma, engages directly with debates on the nature of contemporary multipolarity. Reviewing competing conceptual frameworks, the authors argue that current transformations represent a qualitatively new phase of international order characterized by institutional pluralism, issue-based alignments, and the growing influence of middle powers.

In “The Rise of Economic Coercion: Instruments, Illegality, and UN Charter Remedies,” Virdzhiniya Petrova Georgieva examines the growing weaponization of trade, finance, technology, and investment in contemporary international relations. Combining international relations scholarship with doctrinal legal analysis, the article assesses the legality of economic coercion under the UN Charter and highlights the underutilized legal and institutional mechanisms available to regulate and deter such practices.

The maritime and technological dimensions of multipolarity are explored in “Sea Power and Its Changing Context in the AI Age” by Hu Bo. Revisiting classical theories of sea power, Hu examines how artificial intelligence is transforming naval competition while demonstrating that geography, institutional capacity, and political economy remain central to maritime strategy. The article offers an important contribution to understanding how technological change is reshaping strategic competition in the twenty-first century.

The issue concludes with “Critical Geopolitics of Internationalization: The Case of Turkish Higher Education” by Özlem Salı and Levent Ürer. Drawing on critical approaches to language, hegemony, and knowledge production, the authors examine how English-medium internationalization can reproduce global hierarchies while marginalizing local epistemologies. Their analysis highlights the cultural and epistemic dimensions of multipolar transformation and reminds us that struggles over power increasingly extend beyond traditional geopolitical and economic arenas.

Collectively, the articles in this issue demonstrate that multipolarity is not a singular condition but a differentiated and contested process, manifesting across diplomatic practices, governance structures, economic instruments, technological domains, and cultural institutions. Whether examining China’s evolving diplomacy, the conceptual foundations of multipolarity, the rise of economic coercion, the strategic implications of artificial intelligence, or the geopolitics of higher education, the contributions gathered here underscore the complexity of a world undergoing profound transformation.

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