Some Chrisitan religious fundamentalists use the term in a way that suggests a conspiracy to take over the world. Geopolitics is a word used to describe the wider viewpoint of politics and geography in the changing power structure of the world. The Technological Revolution of the last half century is a worldwide change that ranks with the first Agricultural Revolution and the Industrial Revolution as one of the pivotal events of human history. Political evolution is the tendency for small states to band together into larger ones. The Federation of the United States of America, and the formation of the European Union are examples of political evolution.
Political devolution is the contrary tendency for large states to fragment into smaller ones.
The breakup of the former Soviet Union, and the breakup of Yugoslavia are recent examples of political devolution. The centripetal forces of globalization are pitted against centrifugal forces tendeing towards devolution in many of the world's states. It is possible that both forces are ulitimately constructive for the development of a larger political framework for working out problems on a global scale. While the world has sometimes been compared to a ship on which we humans are the crew, it may be worth thinking about the nature of the waters we are trying to traverse. Some people say we're riding on a showboat, steaming willy-nilly towards Niagara Falls while we whoop it up in the ballroom and the captain lies drunk in the wheelhouse, deaf to the shouts of the lone lookout in the crow's nest.