Polarity of the International Environment in Theory and History

Introduction. The polarity of the international environment is one of the most disputed concepts in modern studies of international relations. Such matters as the structure of international relations, the transformation of its the configuration, the possibility of building a multipolar world are actively debated. Methods and materials. The research is based on critical comparative analysis and search for new approaches on the foundation of historical experience. Analysis. A number of Russian experts argue that the modern world is not multipolar and in search of an answer to questions about the mechanisms of polarity transformation either evade the answer or offer unrealistic approaches, while politicians proceed from the fact that the world is multipolar or is on the way to the final construction of a multipolar structure. Results. The article argues that multipolarity is an integral feature of the international environment at all stages of the development of human society with the birth of state, but attempts to build any form of polarity always failed. Polarity is not a primary feature of the international environment, but is a derivative of inequality, i.e. that of global divergence. Accordingly, attempts to build a polarity in a normative or institutional ways cannot have success: only a change in the structure of global inequality can change the configuration (polarity) of the international environment. Unipolar and equipolar structures of international environment are regarded as historical phantoms, which never existed in reality. Due to the competitiveness of its evolution, the international environment exists (and can exist) only in the form of hierarchically organized multipolarity.