ABSTRACT
Since the Roman Empire, the Western world has been familiar with the concept of pax (literally translated ‘peace’), a peace system based solely on contracts, military power and sanctions. The so-called Pax Romana was followed by several attempts to establish a ‘Pax Christiana’ and a ‘Pax Europea’, from Charlemagne to Napoleon. After the Second World War and the following post-war period of the ‘Pax Americana-Sovietica’, a new monolithic bloc of a ‘Pax Americana’ has arisen. This last policy seems, at least for the time being, to be creating bellicose rather than non-violent conflict resolutions.
