The world order of the 21st century is characterized by transformational processes, changing the spatial–temporal coordinates of international life almost beyond recognition. The features of the present stage are ambivalent processes (integration and disintegration; globalization and deglobalization). The crisis state, in which the science of international relations resides, creates the conditions for the inevitable formation of new concepts and paradigms. Nowadays the events and processes in the sphere of international relations are intricately intertwined, and their causes and consequences are asymmetric. The subject of discussion are such characteristics of the new world as unpredictability, integration and disintegration processes, the problems of the dialectical relationship between globalization and deglobalization, which reflects the formation of a new polycentric world order based on the principle of unity in diversity. Transformation processes need a competent guiding influence, for the implementation of which it is necessary to realize the logic of the development of the modern system of the world order, which is highly likely to lead to a final change of the scientific paradigm in the field of research of international relations.