On the Role of Ideology in Contemporary World Politics

Abstract

Aim. To reveal the role of the ideological factor in world politics during the formation of a multicentric world in the context of the multi-vector nature and contradictory methods of analysing the role of ideology in contemporary international relations in Western academic thought. Methodology. This study employs structural-functional, comparative, expert, statistical, formal-logical, and systems methods, alongside a comparative-historical approach to the comprehensive, interdisciplinary analysis of empirical data. Amid the contemporary reappraisal of the role of ideology in world politics, this methodological framework enables the formulation of a modern vision for the ideological basis of processes driving the emergence of a new multicentric world order architecture. Results. This study indicates that the transformation of the ideological factor in contemporary international relations will increasingly manifest as a growing confrontation between two global, comprehensive ideologies. The first is centered on the preservation and reproduction of a unipolar world dominated by the United States, while the second advocates for a decisive restructuring of the international system toward a genuinely multipolar and more equitable world order. Research implications. In the context of the conducted analysis of the phenomenon of D. Trump’s transition in the foreign policy of his Republican US administration with the beginning of the military operation against Iran in March 2026 from the ideological principle of “Make America Great Again” to the ideological views of right-wing neoconservatism, this analysis confirms the hypotheses put forward in the article about the largely decisive influence of ideology on foreign policy and, ultimately, on the processes of shaping a new multicentric architecture of international relations in a post-bipolar world.