著者

本山 美彦

出版者

日本国際経済学会

雑誌

国際経済 (ISSN:03873943)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2010, no.61, pp.60-79, 2010 (Released:2012-03-26)

参考文献数

8

---

The American president, Barack Obama, seems to believe that the Pacific Ocean will be the growth center of this new century. In the opening adress of the “Strategic and Economic Dialogue” designed to reinforce cooperation between the two countries (U.S. & China) , Obama declared, “the relationship between the United States and China will shape the 21st century”. At first glance, the prediction is not particularly audacious. The rise to power of the most populous country is inevitable. China will soon be the second largest world economy. The United States may remain one of the global superpower for many years to come, but this country has been hit strongly by the economic crisis.  Some in the United States want to believe in the necessity of G2 that would drive the world, harmoniously, rather than agonizing G8. Chinese media are calling for an era of Pax Americhina or Chinamerica that would dominate the geopolitics of the 21st century. The year of 2009 marks the thirtieth anniversary of a normalization of relations of the two countries that resulted in global relief despite a few remnants in the cold war era.  Still, suspicion is alive. Capitalism’s current failure should be explained by a crisis of over-consumption for which the Sino-American couple is in large part responsible. After the end of the illusion of the American “hyperpower”of the Bush years, the time has come for multilateralism and for G20 including the ensemble of major world actors.