In Pursuit of Pax Americana

Abstract

The end of the "cold war" did not only, as is usually understood and conveyed, mark the collapse of the union of states headed by the USSR, where the Communist Party ruled, and the victory of the "Free World" over the "Evil Empire." At the same time, it meant—and this was no less important, at least for the United States—that the Soviet superpower had been erased from the world political map, clearing the way for an American monopoly in this area. In addition to this ideological (democratic) victory, another fundamental task of American foreign policy in the postwar decades was resolved: to rid itself of a rival that had posed a global challenge to the United States and opposed its endeavors to impose a Pax Americana. Under the new conditions, U.S. foreign policy has become the most important formative factor in international relations, with contradictory consequences for both the short and the long term.