The Pax Americana is the acceptance by the American government, and to a lesser extent by the rest of the world, that it is ultimately responsible for the enforcement of a rules-based international system which prohibits, among other things, genocide and the changing of national boundaries by force.
The Pax Americana is unprecedented in its geographic scope. The Greek, Roman, and Chinese Empires obviously didn’t take responsibility for the well-being of the entire world. The Pax Britannica wasn’t consistently viewed at home as an effort to bring peace and stability to the rest of the world, and the British government didn’t have the power to win wars in Europe by itself. Even the US had no ability to impose its will on a global basis throughout the Cold War. The idea of the Pax Americana, therefore, only originated around 1990.
The Pax Americana is under threat, both at home and abroad. What are the options, and what is the prognosis? I will be discussing these throughout the week.