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

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.

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, warnings of a new Cold War proliferated. In fact, argues Gilbert Achcar in this timely new account, the New Cold War has been ongoing since the late 1990s.Racing to solidify its position as the last remaining superpower, the US alienated Russia and China, pushing them closer and rebooting the ‘old’ Cold War with disastrous implications. Vladimir Putin’s consequent rise and imperialist reinvention, along with Xi Jinping’s own ascendancy and increasingly autocratic tendencies, would culminate, respectively, in the invasion of Ukraine and mounting tensions over Taiwan and trade.Was all this inevitable? What comes after Ukraine, and what might the contours of a more peaceful world look like? These questions and many others are addressed in this essential book by one of the most seasoned analysts of international relations.

‘This volume is perfectly timed to anatomise the newest stage of the conflict. No one who hopes to move beyond complacent rhetoric and slogans can afford to miss this essential book.’

‘Learned and incisive, this masterful study of the New Cold War – by the scholar who first identified and studied it – is an indispensable guide to the current global disorder and its ominous portent.’