| Summary/Abstract |
Is the world entering a new cold
war? Our answer is yes and no. Yes
ifwe mean a protracted international rivalry, for cold wars in this sense
are as old as history itself. Some became
hot, some didn’t: no law guarantees
either outcome. No ifwe mean theCold
War, which we capitalize because it
originated and popularized the term.
That struggle took place at a particular
time (from 1945–47 to 1989–91), among
particular adversaries (the United
States, the Soviet Union, and their
respective allies), and over particular
issues (post–World War II power
balances, ideological clashes, arms
races). None ofthose issues looms as
large now, and where parallels do
exist—growing bipolarity, intensifying
polemics, sharpening distinctions
between autocracies and democracies—
the context is quite di+erent.
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