The New Cold War: The United States, Russia, and China from Kosovo to Ukraine

A leading international relations expert uncovers the key stages that led from the end of the Cold War to the War in Ukraine.

In the wake of the 1999 Kosovo War, Gilbert Achcar argued that the world had entered a New Cold War, characterized by a state of permanent readiness for war on the part of the United States, Russia, and China. Achcar’s analysis proved remarkably prescient. In the years since, the U.S. has positioned itself as a global hegemon, broadening its reach through NATO expansion; China has become an economic powerhouse allied with Russia; and Russia has launched pre-emptive wars to block NATO, culminating in Vladimir Putin’s murderous invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

How did we get here? As Achcar details in The New Cold War, the rivalries of the Cold War didn’t disappear with the collapse of the Soviet Union; they simply mutated into new forms. The tensions now are driven not by an ideology of capitalism versus communism, but by conflicting state and economic interests. And frighteningly, the New Cold War has become increasingly hot in the European theater, ratcheting up tensions in ways we have yet to reckon with.

With erudition and sobering analysis, Achcar argues that only by understanding this New Cold War can we begin to imagine the contours of an alternative, more peaceful world.