By Brian Wang, Next Big Future

Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical strategist who specializes in global energy, demographics and security. He has been quoted in national and international media on a variety of geopolitical topics.

He makes a prediction in the video below about the breakup China and collapse of Germany. He bases this prediction on the assertion that the world has only been ordered from the start of Bretton Woods to today. This is from 1944 to today. On 15 August 1971, Bretton Woods ended when the US pulled out of the gold system. Zeihan is referring to the Pax Americana period. Pax Americana (Latin for “American Peace”) is a term applied to the concept of relative peace in the Western Hemisphere and later the world beginning around the middle of the 20th century. It was caused by the preponderance of power enjoyed by the United States. Although some would also credit several powers having nuclear weapons.

The Bretton Woods system of monetary management established the rules for commercial and financial relations among the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and Japan after the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement. The Bretton Woods system was the first example of a fully negotiated monetary order intended to govern monetary relations among independent states.

Zeihan ignores the Pax Britannica. Pax Britannica (Latin for “British Peace”) was the period of relative peace between the Great Powers during which the British Empire became the global hegemonic power and adopted the role of a global police force. Between 1815 and 1914, a period referred to as Britain’s “imperial century”, around 10,000,000 square miles (26,000,000 km2) of territory and roughly 400 million people were added to the British Empire. Britain’s Royal Navy controlled most of the key maritime trade routes and enjoyed unchallenged sea power.

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