ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses geopolitical competition as the center of international politics in the multipolar order. Geopolitically important locations are important for defense capabilities, serving as vital buffer zones. These areas might sometimes become ungoverned spaces due to weak and fragile states and their specific foreign policy survival behavior. These power vacuums might lead to conflict as great power might take advantage of the inherent weaknesses of states to intervene and control competing areas. Weaker units of the international system thus incentivize great power competition, and demarking spheres of influence is made more complicated because of the fragility of these units within the competitive international system.
