The age of unipolar domination is over. MULTIPOLARITY! declares the dawn of a new epoch where ancient and distinct civilizations rise to assert their sovereignty against the waning universalism of the dying liberal West. This book presents a philosophical and geopolitical framework for the multipolar world, where the dynamic interplay of planetary powers, all rooted in their own unique traditions and histories, reshapes the global stage.
Through the ideas of Alexander Dugin, Alain de Benoist, and Guillaume Faye, among others, MULTIPOLARITY! explores the clash between land and sea powers, the new Holy Roman Empire, and the imperative to preserve the eternity of the sacred against the dehumanizing forces of modernity. Central to the multipolar vision are the Heideggerian concept of Dasein and the theory of Archeofuturism, which advocates harmonizing the wisdom of the past with the technological potential of tomorrow. Trump’s isolationism and the disintegration of American hegemony are identified as harbingers of this renewed world order.
MULTIPOLARITY! is a manifesto for those who reject the flattening tide of sameness and embrace a future forged by heterogeneous authenticity, ethnic identity, and the enduring vitality of cultures.
Constantin von Hoffmeister studied English Literature and Political Science in New Orleans. He has worked as an author, journalist, translator, editor, and business trainer in the United States, India, Uzbekistan, and Russia.
It was alright, if you've read his substack you'll be greeted by familiar ideas. Generally I would say I agree with most of the ideas espoused, but where I think he errs is that he is unwilling to acknowledge that some societies and cultures are simply superior to others.
That is not to say that I don't think each nation and people should have their own little chunk of the world. An England for the Anglos, a Russia for the Rus, an India for the Jeets, etc... each peoples deserves their own nation to call home, and the globalist-liberal project that seeks to destroy and blend all people and cultures into global Zimbabwe is obviously a plain evil. And in fighting this agenda he is noble.
One of those situations in which I agree with most of the critiques, but almost none of the solutions. As the title suggests, there's a vibrant energy that pervades von Hoffmeister's prose that at least makes it an engaging read. The ideas within it are also still fairly niche and so provide fresh insights in understanding the modern outlay of the world and its future.
I also perhaps misunderstood what I was getting myself into when purchasing this book; I thought it was going to focus more so on foreign policy/international relations, but it provides a much more holistic view of everything. This I at least have to credit von Hoffmeister with, while he doesn't provide an answer to every question, he at least tries to provide a consistent synthesis of different ideas. I think because of this, and that energy mentioned earlier, he does get pretty sanctimonious at times and that last chapter in particular was a bit much.
I do believe the notion of multipolarity to be true and an ever increasingly evident truth, that the further the US and Europe goes in ignoring, will only create more problems down the line. I probably do outright disagree with the concepts of "ethnopluralism" and "cultural relativism," that he describes inside, so if that means that I also can't subscribe to the rest of it then whatever. I also felt that the ethnopluralism just wouldn't work with the recommendation of remigration nor with his hope of a New Holy Roman Empire. His historical analyses of the Roman Empire and Soviet Russia were just wrong as well.
The best chapters were "The Fall and Rise of America," "Land and Sea," "Multipolairty and the Raspailian Warning," and "Remigration: The Imperative of Return." In the end, it's probably not necessarily to agree with everything in here anyway, a lot of the insights work fine on their own and are worth considering.
This work is essentially a Soviet geopolitical fanfiction predicated on the notion that “Eurasia,” as in a united Europe, Russia, and China, is currently supplanting the Pax Americana. The author seems to miss that almost any European polled holds an animal hatred for Russia and that China could not be bothered to share power with anyone, let alone Europe. As much as I may share with the author distaste for the unipolar liberal world order that currently exists, I do not see this multipolar world he envisions as inevitable, likely, or even possible.
The worldview of multipolarity shares an ethic with the global left (even using terms such as ‘equity’ and ‘exploitation’ in earnest and espousing leftist anticolonialist rhetoric) in that they both oppose realist or “imperial” foreign policy and would prefer a world where we all get along and celebrate our differences in peace and understanding. Unfortunately this is not how the world works. Anyone born before the French Revolution would see these notions of surrendering European dominance and sovereignty as cowardice. I suspect that this multipolarist school is the survivor of Soviet foreign policy ideology with how they simultaneously advocate for the expansion of Russian influence in Europe and whine like leftists about the evils of American imperialism.
It’s funny that the Arktos brand, which has been so instrumental in keeping Evola’s works alive and accessible, is also the premier Trojan horse of Soviet propaganda to the West. The New Right in the sense of this book is really an authoritarian left movement that seeks to poach susceptible Western right wingers into supporting Soviet doctrine by ostensibly offering an alternative to the liberal world order that they mutually oppose. This alternative, when examined more closely, is just Soviet imperialism.
The book also contains a chapter praising how tolerant and inclusive Stalin was regarding the territories and ethnic groups inside his empire. Lol. Lmao.
I remember when Arktos used to publish high-quality books, by ENR authors, from Conservative Revolutionaries, from Evola, from titans of reactionary and right-wing thought. Lately, it seems as if forces of subversion have managed to take over Arktos in an effort to reduce the quality of its content and thus make its impact less potent.
This book is OK, it is not a bad book, yet most of the analysis is surface level, all rhetoric without any deeper substance. The contents are basically an adaptation of Dugin's ideas for the American Alt-Right. I do not doubt that the author does have comprehensive knowledge of the topics he discussed, yet this is not the perception one gets when reading this book. He does operate with the "keywords" of important right-wing intellectuals, however he seems to cling to a utopian vision that is at times laughable (consider for example his view of the Soviet Union), and even warrants the well-founded criticism by less dogmatic opponents that "right-wing critique is on point, but the solutions proposed are not".
The book closes with with a chapter of Lovecraftian fictional (there are topical poetic verses dispersed throughout the book, presumably written by the author himself) story on Multipolarity, which basically sums up the book quite adequately - a mimic of different ideas summed up in a seemingly coherent theory of multipolarity.