The End of "Pax Americana"...
The End of "Pax Americana"... ... and the Dawn of a New Era of Great Power Competition in a Multi-Polar World Julius Ruechel I shall open this essay with a deceptively simply question that has haunted humanity since the dawn of civilization… a question that is about to become extremely relevant again as we transition from the long relative stability of the American-led post-WWII global order to a much harsher, more volatile, high-stakes multi-polar world: Is it better to be a sovereign nation or a province within an empire? One of the central pillars of classical liberalism is that a nation — a group of people united by a shared ancestry, history, language, or geographic boundary — should govern itself, free from outside interference (a.k.a. self-determination) . That core belief lies at the very heart of most of the intense geopolitical struggles that defined much of 20th-century history. This noble classical liberal ideal emerged as a reaction to living under ...