From Pax Americana to Pax Universalist
Moving from Middle Powers to Guiding Powers
Wayne King
May 05, 2026
Tenney Mountain Windfarm Sunset
“There is no shame in embracing the idea of ‘Middle Powers.’ This shift is not a surrender of influence, but a strategic empowerment of all nations. It is a modern extension of our Founders’ dream: a world where power is balanced and every nation has the agency to secure its own future.” ~ Wayne King
. . . More than 500 years ago, so it is told among my Haudenosaunee brothers and sisters, the great Hiawatha stood beside Deganawida (Peacemaker) and demonstrated, on his behalf, the power of unity.1
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Hiawatha took one arrow from his quiver and easily snapped it in half in front of his brothers and sisters.
Peacemaker then asked the chiefs of each of the original five nations representing the Nations in the budding Iroquois Confederacy, to hand him one arrow each from their own quivers.
Tossing aside the broken arrow, Hiawatha took the five arrows from the chiefs and bundled them together. Peacemaker then invited every man and woman to try breaking all of them together.
None could break the bundle.
Thus would emerge, from the Iroquois Confederacy, the simple phrase: “In Unity There is Strength.”
Nearly 200 years later, various versions of this story had created a word-of-mouth chain around the world, from Techumseh to the Mongolian steppes, to the patriots of a movement among American colonists with a dream to secure a “new” form of government, based on the consent of the governed.
Over time - through the vagaries of history, luck and sheer determination, the American story became preeminent.
Through a bloody Civil War, pitting brother against brother as we struggled to confront our original twin sins, slavery and the genocide of Native people - followed by two World Wars, we clumsily wove together a powerful nation, despite the weakness of our own hypocrisy.
The end of World War II and the Bretton Woods Conference ushered in nearly 80 years of prosperity - ostensibly created at the hands of the growing American empire.
Pax Americana they called it. The American Peace. Following in the path of Pax Britannica.
Then came the RUPTURE.
Canadian Prime Minister Carney described the results of this rupture as a time for the ascendency of the “Middle Powers”.
The term “middle powers” seemed to trigger US Americans.
Were we expected to simply step aside? To relinquish our primacy on the world stage? It certainly seemed that way.
But what if we looked at this in a different way?
A Great Day to Fly
What if we saw this new emerging paradigm as - not the emergence of “Middle Powers” but rather the emergence of “Guiding Powers” birthed in collaboration with the US?
Not a surrender of US power, but rather, a movement, welcomed by the United States, empowering all nations. . . no longer a Pax Americana but a Pax Universalist. Not a rupture, an extension.
An extension of the dreams of our own Founders.
After all, nothing in the stirring words of Tom Paine, words that fired our imaginations as General Washington read them around the freezing campfires of Valley Forge, indicated that the dream belonged only to us.
Nothing contained in the words, penned by Jefferson, on July 4, 1776, gave us a franchise denied to others.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among men (and women), deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
It would be unlikely, at best, to presume that Donald Trump might demonstrate a level of humility and humanity that would permit him to lead such an effort, but given the fix he finds himself in right now, who knows, lightning might strike. After all, Nobel Peaces prizes might be at stake.
While the conceptual framework of “Guiding Powers” is being developed, our “allies” in NATO, despite the disservice we have done to them, are in an ideal position to resolve the conundrum of Hormuz - because they have shown independence in the face of the President’s insults and threats.
The looming question here is whether our NATO allies will take the initiative themselves or will be - by some miraculous intervention - invited by our President to form a new paradigm for our future, where UN Vetoes and World Court exemptions are a thing of the past. Where all nations are welcome in a confederation of equals. and where none may lord it over any other or veto a decision by the majority.
Now we all know that President Trump will spin the outcome as a victory, no matter the level of his capitulation. To ask for the cooperation of this nascent “Guiding Powers” group in negotiating the re-opening of the Hormuz Strait presents Trump with plausible deniability and at least wiggle room to declare victory.
This face-saving measure might offer a way to return to the status quo ante in Hormuz. Presenting Iran with an opportunity to deny a victory to Donald Trump by negotiating with a third party. Likewise, Trump will also be able to claim a victory, albeit pyrrhic.
In short: There is no shame in embracing the idea of ‘Middle Powers.’ This shift is not a surrender of influence, but a strategic empowerment of all nations. It is a modern extension of our Founders’ dream: a world where power is balanced and every nation has the agency to secure its own future.
Of course this still leaves the “stalking horse” of a nuclear agreement unresolved. It took more than 9 months for negotiators of the JTPOA to arrive at their historic agreement. To think that we could achieve an even higher level of agreement in just a few days or weeks is folly. If anyone can spin this fact into gold it’s President DJT.
About Wayne
Author, podcaster, artist, activist, social entrepreneur and recovering politician. A three-term State Senator, 1994 Democratic nominee for Governor. His art (WayneDKing.com) is exhibited nationally in galleries and he has published five books of his images, most recently, “New Hampshire - a Love Story”. His novel “Sacred Trust” a vicarious, high voltage adventure to stop a private powerline as well as the photographic books are available at most local bookstores or on Amazon. He lives on the “Narrows” in Bath, NH at the confluence of the Connecticut and Ammonoosuc Rivers and proudly flies the American, Iroquois and Abenaki Flags. His publishing website is: Anamaki.com.
From the Gallery
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