Towards A New Cold War

Examines United States foreign policy from the Vietnam era to the Reagan years, including discussions on policy decisions in Indochina, the Middle East, Central America, East Timor, and with the Soviet Union.

Expanding on themes such as the cozy relationship of intellectuals to the state and American adventurism after World War II, Chomsky goes on to examine the way that U.S. policymakers set about the task of rewriting the horrible history of involvement in Indochina and turned their attention more squarely on the Middle East and Central America. Also assesses U.S. oil strategy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, issues an urgent call to stem the bloodshed in then-unknown East Timor and marks the increased posture of confrontation and rearmament under presidents Carter and Reagan that signaled the end of détente with the Soviet Union.

One of the world's most seasoned international relations experts updates and revises his far-sighted 1999 book arguing that the Cold War did not, in fact, end with the collapse of the USSR – and that the US, Russia and China today are locked anew in a spiral of hostilities.

This book examines the contention that current US-Russia relations have descended into a ‘New Cold War’. It examines four key dimensions of the original Cold War, the structural, the ideological, the psychological, and the technological, and argues that the current US-Russia relationship bears little resemblance to the Cold War. Presently, the international system is transitioning towards multipolarity, with Russia a declining power, while current ideological differences and threat perceptions are neither as rigid nor as bleak as they once were. Ultimately, when the four dimensions of analysis are weighed in unison, this work argues that the claim of a New Cold War is a hyperbolic assessment of US-Russia relations.

The old Cold War was the name given to the highly tense and antagonistic relationship between America and the Soviet Union. It was a cold war precisely because it did not lead to all out war between the two sides, despite their ideological differences. This book argues that we are now entering a New Cold War, but this time the highly fraught relationship is between China and America. Trading relations are at an all time low. A military build-up is already occurring on both sides and multiple attacks in cyber space are now a frequent occurrence. Even more concerning are the recent 'land grabs' in the South China Sea as China asserts control of many of the islands in the area, establishing huge military garrisons in this vast expanse of sea. The book compares the old Cold War with the New Cold War in order to understand what will be different this time around. Will the New Cold War be similar to the last one with massive military build-ups on each side? Will the world be divided once again by alliances on both sides? What are the risks of this New Cold War descending into a hot war? Although there have been many commentaries on this New Cold War, this is one of the first books to provide a detailed analysis of this new strategic landscape.

The United States is a nation in crisis. While Washington’s ability to address our most pressing challenges has been rendered nearly impotent by ongoing partisan warfare, we face an array of foreign-policy crises for which we seem increasingly unprepared. Among these, none is more formidable than the unprecedented partnership developing between Russia and China, suspicious neighbors for centuries and fellow Communist antagonists during the Cold War. The two longtime foes have drawn increasingly close together because of a confluence of geostrategic, political, and economic interests—all of which have a common theme of diminishing, subverting, or displacing American power. While America’s influence around the world recedes—in its military and diplomatic power, in its political leverage, in its economic might, and, perhaps most dangerously, in the power and appeal of its ideas—Russia and China have seen their influence increase. From their support for rogue regimes such as those in Iran, North Korea, and Syria to their military and nuclear buildups to their aggressive use of cyber warfare and intelligence theft, Moscow and Beijing are playing the game for keeps. Meanwhile America, pledged to “leading from behind,” no longer does much leading at all. In Return to Winter, Douglas E. Schoen and Melik Kaylan systematically chronicle the growing threat from the Russian-Chinese Axis, and they argue that only a rebirth of American global leadership can counter the corrosive impact of this antidemocratic alliance, which may soon threaten the peace and security of the world.

'An illuminating book for the interested citizen as well as for those making policy' HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON 'An important, crystal-clear account of contemporary global geopolitics... Essential reading' PETER FRANKOPAN 'An excellent short guide: concise, informed, and full of insight' SIR LAWRENCE FREEDMAN We have entered a new Cold War. The contest between America and China is global and unbridgeable, and it encompasses all major instruments of statecraft - economic, political and military. It has its tinder box: Taiwan. And both protagonists are working hard to draw allies to their side from across the world. We stand at its beginning. But this Cold War is nothing like the conflict between the Soviet Union and the West which defined the second half of the twentieth century. We need new ideas to navigate its risks and avoid a globally devastating hot war. In this urgent and necessary book, Robin Niblett argues that only by looking back can we learn the lessons to guide us through this new reality: he goes through the ten ways in which the New Cold War is different and offers five rules for navigating its onset. How we manage this contest will determine not only whether there is still space for international cooperation to deal with our many global challenges, from the climate emergency to the technological revolution, but also who will lead the twenty-first century and, quite simply, the course of all our futures.