The New Cold War: Not a Global Conflict Analysts continue to argue that it would be
difficult to compare the Cold War and the New Cold War because there just seems to
be too many differences. Legvold argues that the New Cold War will not encompass the
entire global system; therefore this has to be a completely different conflict all together.
(Legvold, 2014) He suggests that China and other major world powers will not be drawn
into this conflict like they were in the past and without April 27, 2015 The Cold War:
Over, Renewed, or Never Ended? Matt Phipps 6 | P a g e an Asian influence these
issues cannot be considered a part of the Cold War. However, Legvold also contradicts
himself in his article Managing the New Cold War by stating that he acknowledges that
these events are likely to have major implications on every important aspect of the
international system and if the conflict is not properly contained it could possibly
escalate. Analysts acknowledge that there is a real threat that a nuclear war could
quickly become a reality once again, some analysts even suggest the New Cold War is
even more likely to produce a nuclear conflict than in the Cold War. (Legvold, 2014)
(Kroenig, 2015) They show that the number of total number of nuclear weapons have
decreased dramatically throughout the world. However the amount of nuclear capable
countries has increased and with that came instability. (The Economist, 2015)They also
suggest that the best way to contain this threat is by both sides to look at the Old Cold
war and learn from their past. (Legvold, 2014) These analysts infer that this situation is
close enough to the past to draw comparisons between the two, but they aren’t close
enough to be considered a continuation to the original conflict. It is these types of
contradictions that cause confusion of the seriousness of the issue and begin to show
that there are legitimate concerns that show that perhaps the Cold War conflict never
truly came to an end. Unresolved issues There are distinct differences between the
Cold War and the issues that are currently taking place, but some of the biggest issues
that were on the forefront of the original Cold War are still issues today. There is still a
divided Korean peninsula, there are major issues with the April 27, 2015 The Cold War:
Over, Renewed, or Never Ended? Matt Phipps 7 | P a g e Russian Government and
NATO, Russian and U.S. relations are very tense, and the issue of missile defense still
lingers on. These issues are enormous and none is bigger than the issue of the nuclear
capabilities. The United States still recognizes Russia as the only power that can single
handedly destroy the United States because of their vast nuclear arsenal.
(Nazemroaya, 2009) In the recent months since the Crimea incident started, Russia has
test launched an intercontinental ballistic missile, Russian nuclear submarines were
detected off of the coast of Western European countries, and they even sent nuclear
capable bombers to North America. Through these actions it has become clear that
Putin has decided to use Russian nuclear ability as a form of deterrent to the rest of the
world so that they won’t get involved in whatever plans Russia has. (Kroenig, 2015)
These actions from the Russian President show that this may once again put the U.S. in
a major nuclear face off against Russia. Since the 1997 Founding Act, NATO and
Russia have been working to have a cooperative relationship. However, that is all it has
become, it is a work in progress. In 2010 NATO re-structured its original plan and
submitted the Strategic Concept which was an attempt to have a true strategic
partnership with Russia and once again it seems to be something that NATO wants
more than Russia. There seems to be a very wide gap between NATO’s idea of what
they want to accomplish with their relationship and their Russian counterpart. The
research shows that NATO has really been trying to make this a working relationship
but Russian politics continue to hinder the relationship. It has been no secret that Putin
wants to “re-establish a greater Russia in areas that were formerly controlled by the
soviet union” (Kroenig, 2015) In 2010 President Obama and Russian President
Medvedev April 27, 2015 The Cold War: Over, Renewed, or Never Ended? Matt Phipps
8 | P a g e signed the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New Start) the idea was to
reduce each Nations Nuclear arsenal by thirty percent and also limit the amount of
nuclear submarines, and bombers. This went into effect February 2011 but it didn’t end
the continuous issue between the two nations. Obama has stated that he would like to
put even more limitations on their Nuclear Arsenals but acknowledged that it would be
difficult to do because the Russian government has stated that they will not reduce any
further unless the “U.S. agrees to legally binding limits on their Missile Defense
programs,” which the United States isn’t overly excited to do. (Plumer, 2013)
