The Age of Tectonopoly: From Global Deconstruction to Civilizational Texturing

05.08.2025

By Valikhan Tuleshov

We are living in an extraordinary time. With what might be called the "light hand" of Donald Trump, the global deconstruction of the old world order has begun. The era of Modernity—characterized by universalist projects such as reason, progress, science, and a singular historical subject— has reached its conclusion. Not because it failed, but because it fulfilled its trajectory. Its logic is complete.

Postmodernity, which followed, did not offer peace or a coherent alternative. Instead, it dismantled the old narrative — deconstructing it, ironizing it, fragmenting it — without constructing anything in its place. That phase, too, is now exhausted.

Trump’s geopolitical interventions, as I have previously argued, have ushered the world into a new phase — a stage of “reassembly”. In this context, conventional categories such as “globalization,” “universalism,” “center and periphery,” “unipolarity,” and even “multipolarity” have become insufficient to describe the new reality.

This reassembly is not a return to tradition, nor a conservative turn, nor a resurgence of nationalism. It is not reactionary. It is something entirely new — “a new genesis”, a global emergence of multiplicity, where each civilization not only preserves itself but becomes a fully-fledged *form of the world*.

We are entering the Era of Texturing: not a chaotic diversity, but a structured multiplicity of civilizations. In this new paradigm, civilizations are not merely “cultures” or “states”—they are *ontological projects*: distinct conceptions of humanity, being, time, justice, and the future.

This is not a new Cold War. There are no clear ideological binaries, no complete systemic divides. Conflicts today are no longer shaped by rigid blocs. They are *textured*—diverse, multidimensional. The digital and cognitive realms have moved to the forefront of global tension.

States and civilizations are no longer simply enemies or allies. They are “tectons” — neighboring plates of reality. Sometimes they converge, sometimes they collide, but they no longer merge into a singular whole, nor do they seek total annihilation. Hostility has been replaced by tense coexistence. Alliances are formed through pragmatic interests, not enduring ideological commitments.

The wars of our time — Ukraine and Russia, Indo-Pakistani tensions, conflicts in the Middle East — are better understood as extended confrontations along civilizational fault lines. These are not wars with a clear end, but tectonic shifts — gradual, grinding movements in the foundations of global order.

The World of Tectonopoly

This leads us to a new conceptual framework I propose: **Tectonopoly**.

Tecto - (from the Greek *tekton*, meaning "builder" or "structure") points to tectonic shifts in geopolitics and civilization.

-poly reflects the plurality and diversity of fields, realities, and powers—not battlefields, but terrain of coexistence and competition.

Tectonopoly defines our era: a world of simultaneous conflict and coexistence, competition and cooperation, in which states, civilizations, and digital structures interact in layered, dynamic, and often tense ways. There is no longer a single ideological front. Instead, there is a saturated contest over technological, cognitive, and cultural influence.

In this framework:

“Ideology” becomes localized and instrumental.

“Geopolitics” becomes a mosaic of asymmetrical confrontations.

“Economics” becomes a paradox of interdependence: sanctions and deals exist simultaneously.

“Technology” becomes the primary battleground—AI, semiconductors, data, and cyberspace lead the charge.

“Civilizational self-assertion” becomes a central form of influence and sovereignty.

The “digital sphere” evolves into a space of cognitive warfare, neurocultural expansion, and broad informational transformation.

Alliances are situational and transactional. Conflicts are chronic but controlled—what I call “deconfliction aggression".

The major tectonic plates of today — the U.S., China, Russia, the EU, India, the Islamic world, Africa, and digital corporations — are separated by active fault lines: Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Arctic, Central Asia, the Sahel, the Balkans, and cyberspace**. Pressure is applied through:

Information (AI and cognitive operations),

Energy (green transition vs. fossil resources),

Infrastructure (BRI and global logistics vs. Western systems).

Thus, “Tectonopoly” represents an era of “unstable equilibrium”, cultural fragmentation, and technological rivalry. It is a transitional phase without universal foundations—only shifting balances, pressure points, and competing fields of influence.

Toward the Genosphere

Yet this transitional era will not end in apocalyptic war. It will end in “fabric” — in the emergence of civilizational texturing. In this future, worlds do not collide, they are woven together into the “Genosphere”: a multidimensional civilizational order where no single center dominates, but multiple centers **resonate** in harmony.

A Word on Timing

The Age of Tectonopoly, in my view, cannot be fixed to a precise calendar. It is a “threshold epoch” — a bridge between paradigms. Its conclusion will be marked not by a singular event, but by the maturation of this new global structure, when multiplicity becomes form, and texture replaces hierarchy.