The US foreign policy of 2025 is shifting structurally and no longer follows the liberal unipolarity of the post-cold war period. Washington had dominated the world order in decades with its association of security, economic influence, and soft-power discourses. However, that model is under revision when there is increasing pressure on it by geopolitical rivals, as well as ideological changes back at home.
The strategic vision of the blueprint of the Project 2025 strategy was consistent with the second Trump administration in its focus on nationalist diplomacy centered on transactional diplomacy and unilateral benefit. Instead of doubling down on multilateralism, the US has readjusted its policy of engagement with international institutions, and turned toward bilateral pressure measures and economic coercion as the leading instruments of statecraft.
The withdrawal of some mechanisms in the UN, mistrust on the integrity of NATO, and the adoption of tariffs as a tool of leverage are all examples of the new policy. The pivot is a realist theory of calculating national interest against worldwide custodianship, which has some ripple effects on the world diplomatic and economic structures.
China And BRICS: Catalysts Of Multipolarity
With the US reducing its levels of commitment to multilateralism, China and its alliances have taken advantage to reinvent international relations by extending the BRICS group. The ten active countries that now make up the group have an agenda promoting multipolarity, equitable development, and financial sovereignty. Its increased membership of emergent powers of Asia, Africa and Latin America provides a platform to the voices which had historically been underrepresented in Western-dominated institutions.
The efforts to establish alternative financial institutions, such as the New Development Bank, cross-border payment systems, etc., testify to the attempts to develop independence of the US dollar and Western banking systems. The BRICS countries have almost a quarter of the world trade, and this increases their capacity to shape the international markets and financial systems.
The BRICS 2025 Summit held in Johannesburg emphasized much on de-dollarization, sovereign technologies and South-South collaboration. These debates indicate that a multipolar world is being made by using cooperative economic and developmental initiatives and not military alliances.
Ideological And Strategic Convergence
In addition to their economic cooperation, BRICS countries are ideologically united in terms of sovereignty, non-intervention, and the anti-regime change ideology commonly linked to the Western foreign policy. Although they have different models of governance, these states have a similar strategic focus of confronting Western hegemony in international law, media and financial systems.
China, especially, grounds this coalition by tying its Belt and Road Initiative with BRICS infrastructural development objectives. The synergy is indicative of a longer-term plan of regional blocs and intercontinental trade routes by bypassing the traditional Western gatekeepers.
Although still maintaining its strategic ambiguity, India adds some weight to the group through its encouragement of pluralism in international governance. In 2025 under the leadership of President Lula da Silva, Brazil returned to its non-aligned policy grounds, promoting the cause of a multipolar and peaceful world order in the international conferences.
Geopolitical Implications And Global Stability Concerns
The advent of the multipolar world has created novel dynamics of world governance. Numerous traditional US partners, especially in Europe and East Asia, are struggling with the dilemma of maintaining their geopolitical relationship with Washington and increasing regional ambition and economic reliance on China.
Strategic autonomy discussions have become more heated in Europe, as a number of nations such as France and Germany reevaluate their dependence on US defense and trade policy. The disintegration of transatlantic consensus has led to some countries diversifying their diplomatic holdings, either attending BRICS+ talks or entering bilateral agreements with China in technological and infrastructure.
Technological Competition And Supply Chain Nationalism
Geotechnology is now one of the areas that have turned into one of the most disputed fields in the emerging multipolar competition. The US still continues with the export controls on semiconductors and advanced manufacturing equipment to eliminate the techno-rise of China. To this, China has intensified its self-reliance policies and has put money into AI products within the country, green technologies and digital currency networks.
Both blocs have also responded to supply chain security by ensuring that they have invested in critical mineral resources especially rare earths. Global economic geography is transforming with the developing countries being both an opportunity and a challenge.
The incompatibility of technological standards between US-led and the BRICS-aligned frameworks provides a possibility of the digital Balkanization of the world, where incompatible systems are the impediments to interconnecting the world in terms of telecom, finance, and cybersecurity.
Global Governance Challenges In A Divided System
Replenishment of power has put pressure on the old systems of dealing with crises in the world. UNFCCC climate talks in 2025 are getting polar, with the arguments on money and responsibility threatening to destroy the commitments on the Paris Agreement objectives. BRICS countries insist on the historical responsibility and on the increased funding, whereas the US on the voluntary contributions and technological innovations as the ways of mitigation.
The issue of pandemic preparedness, which was emphasized during the years of the COVID-19, is a controversial one. However, there are still efforts in progressing the WHO global health accord which is resisted by the states that are afraid of supranational authority. It seems that there is a fractured response to future outbreaks in case institutional coherence is further eroded by multipolarity.
The possibility of proxy wars in disputed areas such as the South China Sea, West Africa, and Eastern Europe are still very high. The lack of a globally accepted security system puts the region in danger of intensification of conflicts without a powerful conflict mediating system.
A Geopolitical Perspective From Analysts
This individual has already addressed the issue: Glenn Diesen, one of the most noticeable geopolitical analysts, has made the statement recently that
“The US foreign policy recalibration in 2025 has accelerated the multipolar world order’s crystallization, enabling China and BRICS to reshape global governance through non-militarized, consensus-based mechanisms.”
He also stresses the fact that this is not a zero-sum game but an evolutionary course of a more balanced and diversified international system.
His discussion is representative of a larger opinion on the part of observers that multipolarity is not a reversion of the bipolarity of the Cold War era, but an adjustment to a more globalized and pluralistic world order.
Navigating The Future Of Global Order Amid Multipolar Realignments
The present shift to multipolarity is both an opportunity and a threat of the existing unipolarity. The decline of one superpower would likely promote more democratic and balanced decisions at the international level. But, it simultaneously threatens fragmented governance, unequal application of international law and regional instabilities due to power voids.
The emerging order would be characterized by co-operation or normative anarchy or would degrade into a strategic competition and normative anarchy depending on the decisions of the major players, in particular, the United States, China and respective partners on the balance between competition and responsibility. Their trade, technological, defense, and diplomatic decisions will not only shape the nature of international relations in 2025 but also the overall trends of the 21st century world order.
