Introduction: In the contemporary world, the rapid transformation of communication technologies, social media, and global security crises have challenged the traditional structures of geopolitical knowledge production. The concept of “Geopolitical Vertigo” serves as an analytical metaphor, referring to a profound identity crisis and deep confusion that emerges when elite-centered and formal frameworks for interpreting the global order become ineffective. In these circumstances, the resulting vacuum is filled by popular[2] and grassroots discourses, which are often intertwined with populist narratives, particularly those from the left.
Materials and Methods:This study is a qualitative review employing qualitative content analysis. The main objective is to examine and explain the phenomenon of “Geopolitical Cognitive Dissonance” and the way popular geopolitics interacts with traditional geopolitics at both global and domestic levels. This method is highly suitable for exploring texts, narratives, and discourses in the social and political sciences, especially political geography, as it enables the extraction of hidden themes, patterns, and semantic relationships. NVivo 14 software was used to organize codes and create conceptual maps. Given the review nature of the study, an inductive-deductive approach was adopted in content analysis. In the deductive section, key concepts such as “Geopolitical Vertigo” were extracted from the seminal article (Wojciech Kacperski[3], 2026) and used as the initial framework. In the inductive section, emerging themes were derived directly from the data. This combination allows progress based on existing literature while also discovering indigenous and Iranian patterns. The statistical population includes all scientific, media, and discursive sources related to the topic from 2014 to 2026.
Results and Discussion: The present study, aimed at examining the phenomenon of “Geopolitical Vertigo” and the confrontation between popular geopolitics and traditional geopolitics, was conducted through a review approach and qualitative content analysis of 110 domestic and foreign sources. The findings clearly demonstrate that in the post-2014 world, especially after the Ukraine crisis, traditional elite-centered frameworks for interpreting the global order have suffered a crisis of legitimacy. This crisis, metaphorically termed “Geopolitical Vertigo,” has created a vacuum that is being filled by popular, emotional, simplified, and often populist narratives. The analysis of 850 initial codes led to the identification of 9 main themes, the most important of which include “Security Identity Crisis,” “Central Role of Social Media and Digitalization,” “Characteristics of Popular Geopolitics,” and “Confrontation and Interaction with Traditional Geopolitics.” These themes, with high frequency percentages (15.1%, 13.2%, and 12.8% respectively), indicate the decisive role of these dimensions in the transformation of contemporary geopolitical discourse. One of the most significant achievements of this research is the confirmation that geopolitics is no longer the exclusive domain of academic elites, diplomats, and government decision-makers.
Conclusion: The emergence of social media and intelligent algorithms has accelerated the process of “apparent democratization.” However, this democratization has come at costs such as the spread of misinformation, severe polarization, the strengthening of populism, and the weakening of foreign policy coherence. In Europe, especially Eastern Europe, this phenomenon became prominently visible after Russia’s invasion, putting liberal elites on the defensive. Similar patterns are observable in Iran, albeit with indigenous characteristics: the combination of revolutionary sovereignty identity, economic-sanction pressures, and resistance narratives