Realism and Multipolarity in the XXI Century. Challenges for the Balkans

The aim of this paper is to offer an insight into the phenomenon of multipolarity, a phenomenon that appeared on the global scene after the end of a unipolar moment that has lasted since the early 1990s. The paper is an attempt to present the main thesis of multipolarity as well as the correlation between multipolarity and realism as a theory in international relations. For this purpose, the most important explanatory achievements of realism have been reviewed. This was a springboard for analysing one of the world players and an active participant of the new multipolar order in the form of China, using all the realist instruments suggested, in its relations with selected countries of the Balkan region.