In just a decade, Western political thought has gone from using the concept of ‘Civilizational State’ to describe the geopolitical opponents of the modern West to using it in studying the changing political structure and the geopolitical nature of Western civilization itself. These discursive changes demonstrate profound shifts in the paradigmatic perception of both the very structure of international relations and the essence of the actors in these relations. The article presents the results of an analysis of various directions of the civilizational approach in the West, which have an impact in the modern political and scientific discourse of Europe and the United States. The ‘Civilizational State’ is the most appropriate concept to describe the reality of a multipolar world, the transition from the Westphalian model of nation-states to the order of “large spaces” by Carl Schmitt. The reflection of Western political thought on the semantic burden of the concept of ‘Civilizational State’ is obligatory for comprehension in the context of the study of the identity of the Russian Civilizational State — its political, spiritual and social aspects.