ABSTRACT
The modern linear geopolitical narrative has always had four basic elements, even though these have changed in relative significance over the course of time. The first is a global vision in which the world as it came to be known from the 16th century onwards exists for powerful actors to survey and subdue. The second element is the representation of different parts of the world as following a linear path from backwardness to modernity, with Europe as the presumed standard of judgment. This element assumes a third one: that singular map of the world is the political one of a world divided up into putative nation-states. Finally, the fourth and binding element of the linear narrative of global geopolitics is that states are in an unremitting competition with one another for primacy. From a critical geopolitical perspective, China is not just the "next" hegemonic power in the escalator image of Great Powers moving up and down the global state hierarchy.
