THE KOREA TIMES

APLN member Kim Won-soo wrote for The Korea Times and argued that recent events in Washington highlight America’s growing internal divisions and retreat from global leadership, signaling a decline in Pax Americana. He warned that unless American leaders take action, this accelerated decline could create a dangerous power vacuum and global instability.

Recent trends are troubling for Pax Americana. China is catching up fast with the U.S. in economic, military and high-tech areas. The alliance network is being shaken and multilateralism is under siege. External challenges facing America are mounting at every level — global, regional and sub-regional —and in every area — political, socioeconomic, environmental and technological. Geopolitics are increasingly entangled with geo-economics and techno-politics.

In the face of these mounting challenges, the American people increasingly seem to favor moving back to its previous isolationist posture under the Monroe Doctrine, which was meant to care for America and the Western hemisphere only.

Trump is not the cause of America’s retreat to an isolationist posture, but his return was made possible by rising public sentiments in favor of isolationism. In a larger sense, America’s retreat is the cause of Trump’s return. It is reasonable to assume that an American retreat will be accelerated for the next four years under the Trump presidency. His intention seems to strengthen American hard power at the expense of other crucial pillars such as soft power, alliances and multilateralism, which have buttressed Pax Americana through the liberal international order.

A divided America with weakening global leadership cannot be a recipe for extending Pax Americana. To the contrary, actions taken in the early days of the Trump presidency are threatening to tear away its pillars, which may accelerate Pax Americana’s decline. Accelerated decline without a reliable alternative in sight will create a huge power vacuum and only bring greater chaos and peril to the world. This slide must be halted for both America and the world. It is incumbent on American people and political leaders to wake up and step up to the plate.

Read the full article here.

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