In the early decades of the twenty-first‑ century, the international order entered a phase of deep turbulence. The Ukraine War, initiated in 2014 and escalating in 2022, exposed the limits of US-led‑ hegemony and triggered a wave of geopolitical and geoeconomic realignments. This book argues that the war and the sanctions regime it unleashed have functioned as an antisystemic imperative, accelerating the formation of alternative coalitions, diversifying currencies and payment systems, and searching for greater autonomy by states across the Global South.

Drawing on World‑Systems Analysis, Classical and Critical Geopolitics, this book develops a typology of Proactive and Active states to explain differentiated strategies of contestation. It examines the Russia–China partnership, the consolidation and enlargement of BRICS/BRICS Plus, and the emergence of cyberspace and narrative warfare as new arenas of competition in the region. Throughout, it pays close attention to Brazil's position as a semiperipheral, Active state caught between loyalty to Western institutions and the pursuit of autonomy alongside other emerging powers.

With clarity and analytical rigor, Geopolitics and World‑Systems in a Bifurcating Order offers a Global South perspective on the most pressing question in contemporary international relations: what comes after US hegemony?

Charles Pennaforte is a Brazilian scholar of Geopolitics and World-Systems Analysis and professor at the Federal University of Pelotas (UFPel), where he coordinates the Geopolitics, International Relations, and Antisystemic Movements Laboratory (LabGRIMA). He holds a PhD in International Relations from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), Argentina. His research focuses on hegemonic transition, the Global South, and BRICS.