Pax Americana

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The Pax Americana (Latin: American peace ) is a political catchphrase based on traditional historical peace orders, with which a worldview and a concept of world political dominance in the present day are to be alluded to. The terms “Pax Americana” and “Pax Sovietica” are used, among other things, in scientific literature to characterize the antagonistic camps of the Cold War after the Second World War and their sphere of influence. It was and is disputed to what extent any comparisons and equations made with them are plausible or permissible. After the end of the Cold War and the fall of the former Soviet Union , the term “Pax Americana” was primarily intended to express the American claim to shape the world order (“Pax Americana - The New World Order ”).

Concept history

The term Pax Americana initially only referred to stability and peace within the United States after the Civil War . It was printed for the first time in 1894 in the New York magazine The Forum in an essay about the crackdown on the Pullman strike by federal troops:

"The true cause for exultation is the universal outburst of patriotism in support of the prompt and courageous action of President Cleveland in maintaining the supremacy of law throughout the length and breadth of the land, - in establishing the pax Americana ."

After the First World War it was then increasingly used for non-American areas in the course of Woodrow Wilson's new policy and the attempt to establish a New World Order . For example, in 1926 Frederick Jackson Turner wrote :

"The Pax Americana is not without influence upon the war-torn continent of the Old World."

Role models: Pax Romana and Pax Britannica

The idea is - based on the Pax Romana ( Pax Augusta ) of ancient Rome and the Pax Britannica of the maritime rule of England - the world or at least the Western world with the help of the ideas and concepts of free trade, the Christian religion and an ethic of freedom to organize and govern according to American and - albeit with reservations - European understanding. Anyone who wants to be economically active should, if possible, not allow any state or ideological influence to limit their actions. According to the Pax Americana concept, state influence is to be reduced to a minimum as long as it comes to the free development of economic forces.

More detailed explanation of the term

The global dominance of the “ West ” and the freedom of economic activity are to be secured and expanded under the rule of the USA. Organizations and states that attack this supremacy and its sponsors must reckon with the use of institutionalized and possibly military power. The underlying concept is that of pacification through scientific, economic and technological superiority. Its advocates speak of a “benevolent hegemony ” of the United States ( Thomas Donnelly ), which  is supposed to replace what they see as failed international law and its institutions - such as the United Nations . They declare American values to be universal and call for the "unipolar world" of " democratic capitalism ".

In the discussion, the catchphrase is used as a synonym for a new US unilateralism and (neo-) imperialism - by the opponents of the concepts behind it also pejoratively or even parodistic , by the advocates rather euphemistic . In the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001 in particular , it appeared  more and more in the political debate - inspired by American think tanks .

criticism

This attitude meets with great skepticism and resistance in large parts of the world, especially in the socialist or social democratic countries of South America , in the Arab region and in the countries of Africa and Asia . The pax americana is seen there as a legitimation discourse for a US-American neocolonialism and imperialism. The concepts of freedom and liberal market economy that arose in the West in the context of bourgeois democracy are viewed critically there, especially since these are economically applied in the interests of the US and Europe - for example in the context of the WTO dominated by the western industrialized nations .

Equal rights for women and men, human rights, the separation of church and state, and the freedom of science are understood and implemented differently in different countries or not implemented. The West’s discourse of seeing itself as the most developed is being critically questioned by scientists. The in some cases inadequate implementation of the values ​​propagated by the USA in their own country make the global propagation of these values ​​by the USA unreliable for many people.

Especially in the “ Third World ” but also in Western societies, not everyone agrees with the perceived Americanization of the world: with the dominance of American culture, the preference for self-interest and the associated decline in social solidarity, and the focus on happiness in this world in the world according to the utilitarianism of the Pursuit of Happiness and the American Way of Life . Even in the Christian churches, at least outside the USA, very prominently in the Catholic churches , this materialistic and power-political draft of a global social and peace order meets with strong reservations. Proponents, however, attribute such attraction to Pax Americana that they consider it the only conceivable and realistic future New World Order .

Chinese journalist Liu Chang criticized in October 2013 in a comment published by the Chinese news agency Xinhua on the occasion of budget disputes in the US that the US claims to be recognized as a moral example, despite torturing prisoners, civilians with drones kill and spy on world leaders. He went on to say that the promises of the Pax Americana, such as that the US will help end violence and conflict, do something about poverty and displacement, and work for real and lasting peace, have not been fulfilled. Instead, the US acted selfishly and abused its abundance of power to wreak havoc in the world, shift financial risks abroad, fuel regional tensions and territorial conflicts, and rely on obvious lies to wage illicit wars. As a result, the world is still looking for a way out of the economic disaster wrought by the insatiable elites of Wall Street.

See also

To the military-technological basis of the "Pax Americana"

literature

Web links

German

English

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ z. B. in Wilfried Loth : The Division of the World, 1941–1955 . dtv, 1988, pp. 15-34, 34-59
  2. ^ David MacGregor Means: Principles Involved in the Recent Strike . In: The Forum , August 1894, pp. 633-643, 642, unz.org
  3. ↑ Frederick Jackson Turner: Geographic Sectionalism in American History , in: Annals of the Association of American Geographers , Volume 16, Issue 2, 1926, pp. 85-93, p. 91 books.google
  4. ↑ Liu Chang at Xinhua, October 13, 2013: Commentary: US fiscal failure warrants a de-Americanized world