Word Woman

Welcome to another stunning installment of Word Woman's Weekly Work-Out! Keep your brain in training for the long run of life with the Word of the Week. In keeping with our 2008 Election Year theme, here is another political term:

Pax Americana: [noun] The (notional) stability and peace resulting from American dominance (in a region or the world); formerly, stability and peace in the U.S. itself. -- "Hatchet Jobs and Hardball: The Oxford Dictionary of American Political Slang", Grant Barrett, ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.

Example: There are some who consider the Pax Americana engendered in traditionally disputed areas to be more of a bane than a boon to the countries involved.