There has been a lot of loose talk lately about how conflicts with Russia and China are rebooting the Cold War. That’s dumb—and dangerous—thinking.
, among many others, have taken up this idiotic rhetoric. The cast of this real-world reboot is in constant flux. Global jihadists had a good run as America’s top international antagonist. Then it was China’s turn. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Russia moved from understudy to the lead role. Not to be outdone, as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan a few weeks back, China again stole top billing.
During the Cold War, as the eminent historian Odd Arne Westad puts it, “one set of conflicts was repeated over and over again,” forcing “all other contestants for power” to relate. Tensions ricocheted across the globe as the United States and the Soviet Union viewed something as anodyne as elections in El Salvador or Italy as cause for a zero-sum proxy battle to the death.
In comparison with the Cold War era, the global situation in 2022 looks a lot different. While it’s possible quibble about who, or what, constitutes a global power today, it takes very creative accounting to run the numbers and end up with just two—a bipolar world system. There is the United States, China, and Russia. The European Union is the world’s largest trading bloc. Next year, democratic India will become the world’s most populous country.
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