ABSTRACT
This chapter conceptualizes and assesses Global Political System with the traditional tools utilized when observing multipolar structures. With power diffusion among some 19 centers of power, a new conceptual model is necessary to account for such a system. It is suggested that polarization is one method of pole formulation within the system, while the positioning of the system-wide hegemon(s) is the other. The attributes of a nonpolar system may be best expressed by contrasting how it differs from a multipolar structure. Whereas unipolar, bipolar, and tripolar systems have system-wide hegemons in accordance to a numerically described structure. The concept of subsystem hegemon is utilized in the analysis to demonstrate two things: how powerful regional actors differ from the system-wide power actors, and to serve as a mechanism in accounting how a state becomes a system-wide hegemon. The overarching analysis assumes conflict behavior as concentrated between the poles and cooperative behavior as concentrated within the poles.
