[칼럼] World Story 1 - Vision 1  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim

(NewsKorea=Seoul) Digital News Team = World Story 1 - <Vision 1  by Atty Jeong-kee Kim>

● History of the world-centered order and Pax Ameracana

The term "Pax" is often used when referring to the world order, and "Pax" is Latin for "peace." Today, "Pax Romana" frequently appears in comparison to "Pax Americana," which refers to the situation where world peace is maintained under U.S. dominance due to the common characteristic of "world order and peace through power." Pax Romana refers to the time when Europe was first unified by the Romans, establishing a Roman-centered world order. In 27 B.C., Octavian of Rome abolished the triumvirate and received the title of Augustus from the Senate, effectively starting the imperial system instead of the republic. For approximately 200 years until the era of the Five Good Emperors, the Roman Empire dominated the entire Mediterranean region, with the Rhine and Danube rivers serving as the northern boundary. During this time, the empire had strong frontier defenses, faced no invasions from foreign tribes, maintained domestic security, facilitated active exchange of transportation and goods, and saw cities across the empire prosper, leading to a long period of peace known as "Pax Romana." However, when we speak of Pax Romana, we refer to Rome as the central world order at the time, but it must be understood as a regional power that expanded from Europe to North Africa and the Middle East.

The Korean people are generally more familiar with Western-centric history education, so the term "Pax Sinica" might not be familiar.  However, China can be considered a regional power in the East during the same period. In the West, the Roman Emperor, and in the East, the Chinese Emperor, both rose as rulers of powerful regional states, sharing the common characteristic of being agrarian societies. Although the Qin Dynasty was the first to unify China, when discussing the first empire in Chinese history comparable to Pax Romana, the Han Dynasty is often mentioned. In Chinese history, the term "empire" typically refers to the Han, Tang, Yuan, Ming, and Qing Dynasties, which were the ruling dynasties during periods of unification. However, throughout China's history, the process of unification and division repeated itself, and each time, the new dynasty replaced the previous one without any continuity from the former dynasty.

The Yuan Dynasty, which was ruled by the Mongols, was an empire where the Mongols, who share the same bloodline as the Korean pepple, governed China. Similarly, the Qing Dynasty was established by the Manchus, a non-Han ethnic group, and it was the period in Chinese history with the most extensive territorial expansion. In today's terms, their territory included Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Nepal, as well as the Primorsky Krai(the Maritime Province) and southern Siberia. This vast expansion of territory was achieved by the Manchus, who are our close neighbors. In Western history, the dominant cultural and linguistic groups that ruled Europe are often referred to as the Latin, Germanic, and Slavic peoples. In contrast, in China, the Han Chinese were the dominant group, with surrounding peripheral forces such as the Mongols, Manchus, and Koreans. While Rome in the West and the Han Empire in the East were powerful regional states that ruled only a portion of the world, the Mongols, as a peripheral force, established the Yuan Empire in China and conquered much of the Eurasian continent. Thus, the true world conquerors were the Mongols, who share the same bloodline as the Korean people.
 
The Romans maintained peace for a long time and took great pride in being at the center of Europe. However, when the Western Roman Empire fell and Rome was divided, the Mongols even took over the Eastern Roman Empire, the traditional rulers of Europe. At that time, the Mongols ruled over China, India, the Middle East, and the Grand Duchy of Moscow for 200 years, extending their control to Eastern European regions like Poland and Bulgaria. During the period when the Mongols were conquering the Eurasian continent, Western Europe was still considered a primitive region. Therefore, the first people in human history to conquer the Eurasian continent were the Mongols. The descendants of Genghis Khan, who had no fixed residence and lacked a well-established culture, went on to conquer much of the world. This era could be referred to as "Pax Mongolica." In this context, as descendants of the Korean people, who share the same bloodline as the Mongols, we can dream big and hope that, in the 21st century, we can integrate into the world's dominant order with just information technology.

After Pax Mongolica, the next dominant world order was established by Britain. Successfully launching the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th century and laying the foundation for industrial capitalism, Britain achieved modernization domestically through reforms in politics, economy, education, military, and judicial systems. Externally, it focused on strengthening its colonial policies, which had been ongoing since the 17th century, and developed imperialism. As a result, by the 18th century, Britain had established a colonial system in the New World and the East, including North America, the West Indies, and India. In the 19th century, it solidified its control over Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. By securing colonies across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa, Britain built the British Empire, which dominated the global stage in the 19th century, earning it the title "Pax Britannica," or "the empire on which the sun never sets."

However, while Britain was building its vast empire, it did not covet the European continent. Traditionally, the center of Europe was represented by France, following the legacy of Rome, with figures like Napoleon embodying this central role. Because France, as the dominant power, safeguarded the European continent, the island nation of Britain could not easily encroach upon it. Therefore, when we speak of Pax Britannica, it generally refers to a world order centered on Britain, but it is important to note that Britain's influence extended across the globe, excluding Europe.

From the 15th century to the mid-17th century, Spain and Portugal also rose as powerful maritime empires, showcasing their might and briefly becoming the dominant forces in Europe. Before Britain emerged on the scene, Spain had conquered regions in Central and South America, including Mexico, Peru, and Colombia, while Portugal colonized Brazil. As a result, Spanish and Portuguese are still spoken in these regions today. Moreover, Spain established an empire in Asia by securing the Philippines, and Portugal did the same with Macau. Although Britain began to emerge as a global power after Queen Elizabeth defeated the Spanish Armada, France remained the center of Europe until Napoleon declared the empire in 1815. The French Revolution occurred in 1789, and, much like the Romans before him, Napoleon believed that Europe should be unified under French rule. However, his ambitions were thwarted when neighboring powers formed a coalition to jointly oppose France, leading to his eventual defeat.
    
While Britain focused on building a maritime empire in other regions without ever attempting to unify Europe, France, at the heart of Europe, strived to integrate the continent. From this period onward, whenever one country became too dominant, other nations would form alliances to counterbalance the threat, maintaining a balance of power without a single absolute hegemon. After failing in its attempts to unify Europe, France, like Britain, turned its attention to other continents, acquiring several colonies, including Algeria and Morocco in Africa, Indochina(Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos) in Asia, and French Louisiana(13 states in the Midwestern United States) and French Quebec in North America. 

Just as we are in a tragic situation of division similar to the period before the unification of the Three Kingdoms, once a country is divided, there are limitations to its growth into a powerful state. All nations go through a process of unification before emerging as strong powers. For example, Germany was unified by Bismarck in 1871, and Italy was unified by Garibaldi in the same year. After its unification in 1871, Germany began to accelerate industrialization with its concentrated power. Britain, having led the Industrial Revolution, also achieved an economic transformation, using its formidable industrial and military strength to adjust the balance of power in Europe and maintain a relatively peaceful era. Meanwhile, France, following the revolution, spread the revolutionary fervor across Europe.

The Pax Britannica led by Britain marked the transition from an agrarian society to an industrial society and initiated an economic revolution as the early leader of the Industrial Revolution. Afterward, France joined the ranks of economic revolutionaries, and Germany and Italy achieved unification around the midpoint of the Industrial Revolution. Once Germany and Italy completed their industrialization after unification in 1871, they sought to establish maritime colonies, but by then the world map had already been drawn with Britain and France as the central powers. As these newly industrialized nations became powerful, they found themselves dissatisfied with the existing world order. This dissatisfaction led to the outbreak of World War I under German leadership. During this conflict, Britain and France formed an alliance and eventually brought the United States into the war to bring it to a close.

The glory of Britain began to wane from the late 19th century, and by the early 20th century, it lost its influence due to the rise of new powers such as Germany’s expansionist policies, the increasing influence of the United States, and Russia's emergence. During this time, the United States started to establish itself as the world's strongest nation by playing a key role in leading the Allies to victory in World War I. Consequently, after World War II, Britain ceded its position of prominence to Pax Americana. The decline of European civilization, represented by Pax Britannica, signaled the onset of a U.S.-centric world order. Following the end of the American Civil War in 1865, the United States accelerated its industrialization, emerging as a major power and accounting for 30% of global production during World War I. With this power, the U.S. entered World War II later than Britain and France, who were exhausted by the conflict, and played a leading role in turning the tide of the war in favor of the Allies.

During World War II, the Soviet Union joined the Allies to defeat the common enemies, Germany and Japan. However, after the war, relations deteriorated as the Soviet Union promoted communism as its ideology. At the same time, U.S. President Truman, a staunch anti-communist, responded to Soviet actions, even engaging in the Korean War. In Europe, following Napoleon's defeat in 1815, the major powers maintained a multipolar balance of power until World War II. After the war, the world shifted to a bipolar system dominated by the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Consequently, the Soviet Union established indirect control over Eastern European satellite states and even China, while the U.S. exerted influence over Japan, Germany, the UK, France, and Korea. Under the bipolar system, the superpowers of the U.S. and the Soviet Union secured absolute power within their respective spheres, allowing for efficient governance. Both superpowers adopted a form of neo-colonialism, characterized not by direct military intervention but by economic approaches to indirect control.

After World War II, American influence increasingly grew, and the U.S. exercised substantial leadership by reshaping the global capitalist system based on its formidable economic and military power. In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan pursued aggressive foreign and defense policies, leading to a military competition that the Soviet Union struggled to keep up with. Moreover, the Soviet socialist system lacked the economic strength to compete with capitalist America. As the U.S. and the Soviet Union vied for global supremacy, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union two years later marked the Soviet Union's defeat in the arms race.
    
With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the world entered a unipolar era dominated solely by the United States. For the first time in human history, a single nation, the U.S., exerted near-complete control over the five oceans and six continents through indirect means. This marked the beginning of the Pax Americana era. Following the end of the Cold War, the U.S. increasingly exhibited this trend, intervening in events such as the Gulf War, the Yugoslav Wars, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Kosovo crisis in the 1990s. In the 2000s, the U.S. led the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, further extending its political influence. As of 2023, the U.S. has reinforced its military alliances with Europe through the Russia-Ukraine war and solidified the U.S.-Korea-Japan security community amid tensions between China and Taiwan. Consequently, Pax Americana is expected to persist for the foreseeable future.

☆ Author:  Atty Jeong-kee Kim ☆

● Education
- Bachelor of Arts in Political Science, Summa Cum Laude, State University of New York at Stony Brook
-  Doctor of Jurisprudence, Marquette University Law School
- Senior Executive Program, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
- Research Scholar in North Korean Studies, Peking University

● Experience
- Consul General of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai
- Commissioner General for the Korean Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo
- CEO, Asia-Pacific Local Government Network for Economic and Social Development (CityNet)
- Secretary General, World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization(WeGO)
- Law Clerk, Milwaukee Circuit Court, USA
- Senior Attorney-at-Law, Dr & Aju LLC
- Distinguished Visiting Professor, World Economy Research Institute, Nanjing University
- Research Professor, Institute of Oriental Studies, Peking University
- Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Political Science, Kookmin University
- Chair Professor, Graduate School of Business, Dongguk University
- First President of Soongsil Cyber University

● Publications
- Georo English Studies Series for College Students [10 volumes] (Georo Publishing)
- I Challenge the Possibility of One Percent (Chosun Ilbo)
- The Art of Negotiation (Cheongnyonneongsin Publishing)
- Korea and the World (Chekmidum Publishing)