DISTINGUISHED SPEAKER SERIES
The End of the Pax Americana and the Role of
ASEAN and Singapore
21 August 2020, Friday, 4pm – 5pm. Singapore Time, via Zoom
INTRODUCTION “The Pax Americana – which loosely may be dated from the close of the First World War and lasting about a hundred years – was the mainstay of Western Security during the Cold War and the lynchpin of the World Economic Order in the following one or two decades. To some, the USA even attained hegemonic status. It has since then declined. In the eyes of some, myself included, it has come to an end in the last decade – under the current American leadership it has even reversed. Rather than being a stabilizing force (with an eye, natural enough, on American interests) it has become a disruptive force both in security and the global economy. MAGA (Make America Great Again) reads today as a sad irony: I cannot recall in recent times American political stock and credibility in the world to be lower than it is today. Some might rejoice at this, but in my view the Pax Americana with all its shortcomings served the West (I use the term in a non-geographical sense) and the World well. And right now, with enormous global challenges, a vacuum is created which one cannot clearly see how it can and will be filled.”
In the webinar, Professor JHH Weiler will attempt to demonstrate and analyze the reasons for the decline or demise of the Pax Americana and speculate on some possible future scenarios with a focus on ASEAN and Singapore.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER Professor JHH Weiler currently serves as University Professor at NYU School of Law, Senior Fellow at the Harvard Centre for European Studies, Part-Time Professor at NUS Law School, and Co-Director of the CIL ASEAN Law Academy. He served previously as, inter alia, President of the European University Institute in Florence and Manley Hudson Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School. He is an Editor in Chief of the European Journal of International Law and ICON – the International Journal of Constitutional Law.
