The Pax Americana at 80

Why the era of American peace and prosperity has been good for the world--it will co

In the ancient world, the Pax Romana was an historical period during which the western world, under the influence of the Roman Empire, enjoyed 200 years of relative peace, stability, and prosperity. Commencing its founding under Caesar Augustus and ending with death of emperor Marcus Aurelius, the Pax Romana was marked by lower levels of violence, increasing trade, and territorial expansion that saw peak Rome preside over around one-third of the global population.

Photo by Brandon Mowinkel on Unsplash

Since that time, there have been a number of eras so similarly named, but none as dynamic as the current one: Pax Americana. Typically dated from the conclusion of World War II in 1945, the Pax Americana is the era of peace, prosperity, and progress American power has offered the world since partnering with our allies to slay fascism and confront communism. Many predicted this epoch peaked with the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and ended with the Iraq War in the early 2000s. But as the Pax Americana turns 80, it now seems alive, well, and poised to assure a second American century.

That’s an unabashedly good thing. Americans are losing faith in their institutions, but shouldn’t doubt the immense good their country has created for the world. American global dominance has unleashed the best sustained period in world history. The seeds of Pax Americana date to the conclusion of the Civil War. When the United States purged its vilest and most illiberal institution, the U.S. shortly entered a period of industrialization and transformation. Entrepreneurs like Rockefeller and Carnegie became some of the richest men in history—Rockefeller’s Standard Oil once dominating the global oil market. And America began playing an important political and economic role internationally. American leaders like Washington and Lincoln loomed large in the international imagination. Teddy Roosevelt won a Nobel Prize for negotiating an end to the Russo-Japanese War. The U.S. played a critical role in WWI. And while Woodrow Wilson’s missteps contributed mightily to the second World War, by 1945 America was the most powerful country in history.

Economically, we peaked at more than 50% of global GDP and held 80% of the world’s hard currency reserves. We had developed a radically transformed industrial and scientific base that made the U.S. the world’s innovator and exporter. Our universities emerged as the best in the world. And American culture—as communicated by Hollywood—spread like wildfire through foreign lands. We had also developed history’s most terrifying weapon and our military was absolutely unmatched, having sustained far fewer casualties than countries like Russia, Germany, and Japan.

What did we do with that power? Almost any other country in history would have used it to crush and subjugate the world. Americans didn’t. Through the Marshall Plan we deployed their tax dollars to rebuild Europe. America seized effectively no territory. We ceased using our superweapon after we ended the War in the Pacific. America helped to rebuild Japan then returned it to the Japanese. And then we developed military pacts and global aid programs that allowed the world to stand firm against the horrors of Soviet and Chinese Communism. The biggest black marks on the post-War era were the horrifying domestic mass murders and famines that happened under Stalin and Mao, outside the American security umbrella. American inventors like Norman Borlaug helped lift billions out of poverty. We put men on the moon. And the world entered an era that was safer, healthier, and wealthier than any in human history.

And while the United States doesn’t currently boast the level of dominance we had emerging from the ashes of World War II, we remain the world’s hegemon. We are 4% of the globe’s population and 26% of its GDP. As other developed nations in Europe and Asia have slowed, we have continued to accelerate—so much so that countries like Japan, the UK, and Germany would rank among the poorest American states. Half of the world’s great start-ups are American—founded by the native-born citizens and new immigrants alike. And we are now so dominant in the most critical areas of global innovation—artificial intelligence, space, robotics, biotechnology, and a series of other disciplines—that we often outmatch the rest of the world combined. Our military remains the greatest and most advanced fighting force in history. And our natural resources and domestic production capabilities make us one of the most resource blessed and self-sufficient nations in the world. The dollar is still the world’s currency. Our universities are still preeminent. Our elections and culture are monitored almost as closely internationally as they are on our shores. And we’ve retained our moral foundation far better than most of our peers.

Meanwhile, America’s competitors have stumbled. The Soviet Union, which felt so threatening mid-century, collapsed—the modern Russian state a sad oligarchic echo of the evil empire that once threatened to enslave Europe. Japan, a (friendly) economic competitor in the 1980s entered a period of multi-decade stagnation, even as America roared. The European Union, formed in the 1990s to compete (though as an ally) with the United States, has similarly stagnated with only a few nations (like non-EU member Switzerland) keeping pace. India and China have proven more persistent in their growth, but neither has emerged as a true challenger. China is the closest but showing signs of weakness. Rumors of internal debt problems persist (bad debt being long a feature of “planned” economies) and its economy has slowed. The inhuman “one child policy” is now decimating their population growth, threatening to more than halve China’s population by century’s end. The Communist party has tightened its political grip on its people in a way that has crushed any fragile green shoots of freedom. And China finds itself allied primarily with outcast dictators in North Korea, Iran, and Russia even as the NATO alliance is resurging in strength. The operating system of Pax Americana—a fundamental belief in personal liberty, representative government, free enterprise, and human creativity—is one no dictatorship can match.

America has at times stumbled. Our leadership is far from perfect. We’ve fought wars we likely shouldn’t have. Our domestic political system has faltered and become sclerotic. Our commitment to freedom of speech and a free press has been challenged both politically by those who would eschew the first amendment in our own government and culturally by companies and media organizations that would too quickly sacrifice their own freedoms and independence for the temptations of power.

But we are almost shockingly good for a nation with our strength. We continue to navigate growing our country based on shared ideals rather than bloodlines. We are perhaps the most racially and ethnically tolerant and diverse large country in the world, and within a generation most newcomers consider themselves and are considered by others American—not Korean, Indian, British, or Argentine. We are the biggest funder of both international institutions (via our government) and international philanthropy (via the generosity of our people). We use our dominant military power sparingly. We pay for or create most of the world’s medical innovation and technological progress. Perhaps most importantly, through our military might and the might of our allies, we remain this world’s defense against the aggression and violence of those who would strip rather than support the freedoms of others. If you have any doubt of the desirability of Pax Americana, picture America’s military and economic dominance in the hands of China, Russia, or Iran. It would be a radically darker and different world.

There are internal threats to our strength. Our debt and deficit spending could cripple us. Our political dysfunction could erode our marvelous legal institutions—which have held so strong for more than 200 years. Our people could lose our sense of shared values and our confidence in the goodness of our cause. We could collapse culturally into the type of economic and social stagnation that plagues most developed countries today. We could fragment and Balkanize as a country rather than unify.

But I don’t think we will. We’ve countered these threats before. And time and again this government “of, by, and for the people” has persisted—our freedoms and creativity allowing us to stay two steps ahead of the darker forces threatening our world. With any luck, this unrivaled era of peace, fostered by a union more perfect than Rome ever was, will continue unabated, allowing billions to flourish and prosper.

Have confidence, Americans. Be hopeful. As the United States approaches its quarter millennia, the Pax Americana persists. Our challenge now as ever, is to sustain that remarkable era of peace and prosperity and to keep America—and the world—both good and great.

A version of this post appears today at Fox News.