9/11 & The Declination of Pax Americana

Over time, regimes and empires held the greatest positions of power in the world through solid military and economic capacity, otherwise known as a Pax period. Rome, Spain, China, Britain and more all had a chance to possess power in the international system during their individual reigns. However, the supremacies all came to an end when the empires or regimes were challenged by some threatening external force. The United States’ period erupted after World War II because the state possessed economic and military stability. The Pax Americana gained more focused attention following the destruction of the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War. Fakiolas and Fakiolas determines that “…the United States had already built regional hegemonic orders in Latin America and East Asia, [and] it can be said with sound justification that since the end of the Cold War, American unipolarity has endowed Washington with a unique structural opportunity to achieve global primacy and thus to establish world-scale hegemony” (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007). Because of the successful spread of the liberal international order across the globe, the United States held the spotlight for the world’s grandest superpower. Today, however, the Pax Americana has begun to weaken due to the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001 because “the attacks profoundly challenged both the post-Cold War foundations of world order and the American superpower status” (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007). Howell explains that the terrorists held objectives focused on undermining America’s international strength and influence, which ultimately challenges the very basis of the Pax Americana. (Howell 2003) The objectives were fueled by political incentives, but they were also powered by religious motivations. “To illustrate: Osama bin Laden issued a fatwah (edict) in 1998 proclaiming in effect that all those who believe in Allah and his prophet Muhammad must kill Americans wherever they find them” (Perl 2004). With the further definition of the terrorists’ objectives and motivations in mind, the terrorist’s acts evidently targeted the United States’ international power regime and played a role in the declination of the Pax Americana. The United States’ actions before and after 9/11 should be in focus in order to understand the targeted deterioration of the Pax Americana.

The United States secured the powerful seat for economic and military sufficiency following WWII, but the 9/11 attack spurred a sudden downfall in the Pax Americana. The international climate before the terrorist acts explains this deterioration. After the Cold War, the United States was a unitary and influential superpower, but the destruction of the Soviet Union gave the States an opportunity to decrease influential efforts in the international sector. During the height of the Pax Americana, the U.S. exuded peace through military superiority and intervened in potential conflicts that could threaten the stability of the established liberal values. However, because the States decided to step back in participating internationally after the collapse of the Soviet Union, other challengers saw an opportunity to threaten the United States’ economic and military stability. After instating and spreading the liberal international order and its values into the Soviet Union and surrounding states, the United States turned away from issues in the international world that held the potential to threaten their legitimacy and strength. Miller explains that after the Cold War, “the United States pursued limited humanitarian goals of putting an end to atrocities and gross violations of human rights and refrained from any ideological crusades for regime change and democratization” in the international world (Miller 2010). The United States stepped back from democratizing the Arab regimes they held relations with, and even after winning the Gulf War in 1991, there were no efforts to institute democracy in Iraq or Kuwait. The United States sought to “instead…adhere to the traditional norms of sovereignty and noninterference in other states’ domestic affairs” (Miller 2010). This shows that the United States turned away from a potential threat to the established American liberal values. The United States decided to continue their foreign relations with the nondemocratic Arab regimes instead of refusing to partner with them or imposing democracy in their state. While international maintenance of state sovereignty holds importance, the United States should have obliterated any sign of a potential threat to the Pax Americana in order to sustain American world power.

In turn, these threats gained momentum and saw the lack of attention from the United States. This spurred violent action by the Arab states. The attack on September 11, 2001 wrecked the entire state as a whole because of the sheer shock of an outsider infiltrating the mighty walls of America. “ The attacks of 9/11 proved that the United States is threatened by a dangerous and undeterrable enemy with offensive capabilities—Islamic terrorism in general and al Qaeda in particular—who demonstrated conclusively that it is not only willing but also capable of striking at the heart of its major cities and inflicting heavy damage to important U.S. values” (Miller 2010). After the attacks, the Bush administration incited the War on Terror and began to take offensive and forceful action fueled by liberalism. In fact, “it was the 11 September 2001 bombings by al Qaeda that forced him to reconsider security threats and reprioritize strategic choice” (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007). America was in full force to maintain the Pax Americana and domestic security in whatever possible strategy, and the White House acted against this attack on liberal values and American people. The strategy encompassed acting preventatively, unilaterally, and forcefully against the terrorist threats to obtain domestic security before the challengers gathered more momentum and power. (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007). The next step was to declare war on Iraq in 2003, and this action occurred despite international pushback, for the Pax Americana was threatened.

The heart of the matter, in short, was that at a moment when the logic and practice of unilateralist hegemonism was under increasing attack, Bush decided to invade Iraq on the basis of the strategic imperative of preemption and without securing a mandate from the UN Security Council. Hence, he compromised, if not destroyed, one of the United States’ valuable diplomatic assets: international legitimacy. (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007)

All of the maintenance of state sovereignty and legitimacy following the fall of the Soviet Union was immediately reversed in the declaration of war against the wishes of the international sector. This decisive step fostered the protection of American hegemony and attempted to crush the war on terror and reestablish military stability. However, despite the initial intentions of the Bush administration, the results did not pan out in America’s favor. Allies like Canada and Mexico were noncommittal, and other Middle Eastern states banded together to protect the opportunity for weapons of mass destruction. While the United States won victoriously over Iraq, submission in the Middle East towards western values was not successful. Because of the effects left on the Middle East, “popular support for US actions today can hardly be sustained in most of the Muslim world” (Fakiolas and Fakiolas 2007). While the United States attained military stability temporarily, the state expends efforts to maintain the stability today and has ultimately lost the battle in extinguishing external conflicts that threaten the liberal values of the Pax Americana. If the U.S. attempted to institute democratic values in the Arab regimes before the 9/11 attack, the battle may have been victorious.

In conclusion, the Pax Americana was on the rise following WWII and engulfed the world after the Cold War, but the terrorist acts against the United States, specifically 9/11, have spurred a slight, if not permanent, decline in the regime. While the States attempted to establish an international aura for peace and legitimacy, external threats rose at the smallest sign of weakness. The United States’ actions before 9/11 and after the attack are sure indicators of the steady decline of the Pax Americana. The question remains as to which international threat will knock the U.S. down further.

Works Cited

Fakiolas, Efstathios T., and Tassos Fakiolas. 2007. “Pax Americana or Multilateralism?

Reflecting on the United States’ Grand Strategic Vision of Hegemony in the Wake of the

11 September Attacks.” Mediterranean Quarterly 18(4): 53–86.

Howell, Lleyellyn D. 2003. “Misunderestimating the War Against Terrorism.”

Miller, Benjamin. 2010. “Explaining Changes in U.S. Grand Strategy: 9/11, the Rise of

Offensive Liberalism, and the War in Iraq.” Security Studies 19(1): 26–65.

Perl, Raphael. 2004. “Terrorism and National Security: Issues and Trends.” Philosophy 57(219):

5–25.

Simon, Steven, and Jonathan Stevenson. 2004. The End of Pax Americana Why Washington’s

Middle East Pullback Makes Sense.