The author looks upon the current political developments and globalization processes from the viewpoint of the reconfiguration of political and social identities. The paper analyses the «identity crisis» concept and the correlation of political and civic identities in the contemporary world in general and in the key world regions. It is demonstrated that the crisis of the nation-state model has intensified after the financial collapse of autumn 2008. This has given momentum to the rise of alternate identity patterns including civilization identity.