When Globalization Fails by James MacDonald

Author:James MacDonald
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374712945
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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PAX AMERICANA AND THE SECOND ERA OF GLOBALIZATION

Either men may set up a common league to keep the peace of the earth, or one state must ultimately become so great and powerful as to repeat for all the world what Rome did for Europe two thousand years ago.

—H. G. WELLS, In the Fourth Year: Anticipations of World Peace, 1918

When H. G. Wells brought up the example of ancient Rome while speculating about the post–World War I peace settlement, he was not advocating a modern-day Pax Romana. If countries failed to resolve their differences under the auspices of a league of nations, as was then being proposed by the Allies, the grim alternative, as he saw it, was to fall under the jackboot of Teutonic imperialism. In the brave new world Wells envisaged, imperialism was out and cooperation was in. He did not consider the possibility that the new world order might need a hegemon to run it. Yet it turned out that it was precisely a new Rome that the world required.

Two decades later, it was clear that the Versailles Treaty had failed in its objective of ensuring that the conflict was the “war to end all wars.” But now there was a second chance to bring about lasting peace. This time the need to do so was even more urgent than in 1918, since advances in technology had made the Second World War more devastating than the first, and a third world war would be even worse.

The Wilsonian formula for lasting peace in 1918 had been based on three elements: (1) the disarmament of aggressor nations, to be followed by their rehabilitation as peace-loving members of the international community; (2) an end to the inexorable expansion of empires and the removal of barriers to trade so that all nations could feel confident of access to raw materials and markets; and (3) the establishment of a worldwide league of nations to arbitrate disputes and keep the peace. In practice, Wilson’s ideals had been put into effect at best partially. The aggressors were disarmed, but far from being rehabilitated, they refused to see the justice of the new world order, not least because other empires appeared to be expanding. Economic nationalism and protectionism were not abolished; in fact, trade was less free than before the war. Most important of all, the League of Nations, the linchpin of the new world order, was doomed from the start by the failure of Wilson’s own country to join it. How were the Allies proposing to do better this time?

In some ways, their plans did not look so very different from Wilson’s. Their manifesto was the Atlantic Charter, drawn up by Roosevelt and Churchill in August 1941. Even though its publication preceded America’s entry into the war, the charter became the foundation of Allied policy for the postwar settlement, and all members of the anti-Axis alliance, now known as the United Nations, were required to sign up to its principles. Like Wilson’s Fourteen Points, the

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