War or Peace: The Struggle for World Power

The Pax Americana—the global order established after the collapse of the Soviet Empire—is increasingly being challenged especially by former imperial behemoths China and Russia. There is a growing chorus questioning the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’ in favour of a ‘Beijing Consensus’ in economic policy. As the US ceases to be the sole superpower willing and able to maintain a global PAX, today there is an increasing global ‘disorder’. This book is a study of the causes and consequences for this disorder, examining alternative claims for a desirable future economic policy.The book argues that the origin of this increasing disorder lie, in part, in the great economic recession of 2008 in the US, which has tarnished the free market based capitalism of the West. It goes on to debate that there are four major imperial systems which are and will be involved in the new ‘Great Game’ in Eurasia—the US and its European outpost—the EU, China, Russia and India and, potentially, Japan as it seeks to alter its post-war pacifist constitution to act like Britain did for many centuries, as the offshore balancer in the struggle for the mastery of Asia, either as a partner or independent of the US. Their strategic decisions will determine whether we will see a repeat of the past, with another completely unnecessary world war like the First World War, or if they will succeed in eschewing this atavism.