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Cold war (term)

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This article is about the general term. For the 20th century tension between the Soviet Union and the United States, see Cold War.

A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates. This term is most commonly used to refer to the American-Soviet Cold War of 1947–1989. The surrogates are typically states that are satellites of the conflicting nations, i.e., nations allied to them or under their political influence. Opponents in a cold war will often provide economic or military aid, such as weapons, tactical support or military advisors, to lesser nations involved in conflicts with the opposing country.

An image of a large Titan Nuclear Missile in the centre of a nuclear silo
Titan Nuclear Missile (made for the cold war) in its launch silo

Origins of the term

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The expression "cold war" was rarely used before 1945. Some writers credit the fourteenth century Spaniard Don Juan Manuel for first using the term (in Spanish) regarding the conflict between Christianity and Islam; however the term employed was "tepid" rather than "cold". The word "cold" first appeared in a faulty translation of his work in the 19th century.[1]

In 1934, the term was used in reference to a faith healer who received medical treatment after being bitten by a snake. The newspaper report referred to medical staff's suggestion that faith had played a role in his survival as a "truce in the cold war between science and religion".[2]

Regarding its contemporary application to a conflict between nation-states, the phrase appears for the first time in English in an anonymous editorial published in The Nation Magazine in March 1938 titled "Hitler's Cold War".[3][4] The phrase was then used sporadically in newspapers throughout the summer of 1939 to describe the nervous tension and spectre of arms-buildup and mass-conscription prevailing on the European continent (above all in Poland) on the eve of World War II. It was described as either a "cold war" or a "hot peace" in which armies were amassing in many European countries.[5] Graham Hutton, Associate Editor of The Economist used the term in his essay titled "The Next Peace" published in the August 1939 edition of The Atlantic Monthly (today The Atlantic). It elaborated on the notion of cold war perhaps more than any English-language invocation of the term to that point, and garnered a least one sympathetic reaction in a subsequent newspaper column.[6][7] The Poles claimed that this period involved "provocation by manufactured incidents."[8] It was also speculated that cold war tactics by the Germans could weaken Poland's resistance to invasion.[9]

During the war, the term was also used in less lasting ways, for example to describe the prospect of winter warfare,[10] or in opinion columns encouraging American politicians to make a cool-headed assessment before deciding whether to join the war or not.[11]

At the end of World War II, George Orwell used the term in the essay "You and the Atom Bomb" published on October 19, 1945, in the British magazine Tribune. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of nuclear war, he warned of a "peace that is no peace", which he called a permanent "cold war".[12] Orwell directly referred to that war as the ideological confrontation between the Soviet Union and the Western powers.[13] Moreover, in The Observer of March 10, 1946, Orwell wrote that "[a]fter the Moscow conference last December, Russia began to make a 'cold war' on Britain and the British Empire."[14]

The definition which has now become fixed is of a war waged through indirect conflict. The first use of the term in this sense, to describe the post–World War II geopolitical tensions between the USSR and its satellites and the United States and its western European allies, is attributed to Bernard Baruch, an American financier and presidential advisor.[15] In South Carolina, on April 16, 1947, he delivered a speech (by journalist Herbert Bayard Swope)[16] saying, "Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war."[17] Newspaper reporter-columnist Walter Lippmann gave the term wide currency, with the book Cold War (1947).[18]

The term "hot war" is also occasionally used by contrast, but remains rare in literature on military theory.[19]

According to academic Covell Meyskens, the term "cold war" was not employed in China during the Maoist era.[20]

Tensions labeled a cold war

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Since the US–USSR Cold War (1947–1991), a number of global and regional tensions have also been called a cold war.

16th-century England and Spain

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In his 1964 article of Francis Drake's New Albion claim, Adolph S. Oko Jr. described certain 16th century tensions between England and Spain as a cold war.[21]

Great Game

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The Great Game, a colonial confrontation that occurred between the 19th century British and Russian Empires in Asia, has been variously described as a cold war,[22][23][24][25] though this has also been disputed.[26]

Second Cold War

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Main article: Second Cold War

The Second Cold War,[27][28][29] also called Cold War II,[30][31] Cold War 2.0,[32][33] or the New Cold War,[34][35] is a term describing post-Cold-War era of political and military tensions between the United States and Russia and/or China.

Middle East

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See also: Arab Cold War, Iran–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, Qatar–Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, and Iran–Israel proxy conflict

Malcolm H. Kerr first coined the term "Arab Cold War" to refer to a political conflict inside the Arab world between Nasserist republics defending Arab socialism, Pan-Arabism, and Arab nationalism led by Nasser's Egypt, against traditionalist monarchies led by Saudi Arabia.[36]

An Atlantic Council member Bilal Y. Saab,[37] an About.com writer Primoz Manfreda,[38] an Iranian scholar Seyyed Hossein Mousavian and a Princeton University scholar Sina Toossi,[39] journalist Kim Ghattas,[40] Foreign Policy journalist Yochi Dreazen,[41] Brookings Institution researcher Sultan Barakat,[42] and Newsweek journalist Jonathan Broder[43] use the term "cold war" to refer to tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In February 2016, a University of Isfahan professor Ali Omidi dismissed the assumptions that the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would grow tense.[44]

South Asia

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Commentator Ehsan Ahrari,[45] writer Bruce Riedel,[46] political commentator Sanjaya Baru[47] and Princeton University academic Zia Mian[48] have used the term "cold war" since 2002 to refer to long-term tensions between India and Pakistan, which were part of British India until its partition in 1947.

East Asia

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See also: Korean conflict

Naval Postgraduate School academic Edward A. Olsen,[49][50] British politician David Alton,[51] York University professor Hyun Ok Park,[52] and University of Southern California professor David C. Kang[53] used the term to refer to tensions between North Korea and South Korea, which have been divided since the end of World War II in 1945. They interchangeably called it the "Korean Cold War". In August 2019, the North Korean government said that further US–South Korean military cooperation would prompt North Korea to "trigger a new cold war on the Korean Peninsula and in the region."[54]

China's Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng,[55] The Diplomat editor Shannon Tiezzi,[56] and The Guardian columnist Simon Tisdall[57] used the term to refer to tensions between China and Japan.

China and the Soviet Union

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British writer Edward Crankshaw used the term to also refer to the Sino-Soviet relations after the Sino-Soviet split.[58] "Spy wars" also occurred between the USSR and China.[59]

China and India

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Imran Ali Sandano of the University of Sindh,[60] Arup K. Chatterjee of the Jindal Global Law School,[61] journalist Bertil Lintner,[62] writer Bruno Maçães,[63] politician-lawyer P. Chidambaram,[64] politician and journalist Sanjay Jha,[65] and some others[66][67] use the terms like "new cold war" to refer to growing tensions between China and India.

US cold civil war

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In spring 2017, professor emeritus Angelo Codevilla used the term "cold civil war" to criticize "the ruling class—government bureaucracies, the judiciary, academia, media, associated client groups, Democratic officials, and Democrat-controlled jurisdictions"—and what Codevilla considered "against a majority of the American people and their way of life."[68]

In 2017 and 2019, journalist Carl Bernstein criticized then-President Donald Trump, whom he called in 2019 "a sham, a con, a grifter [...] president of the United States", for exacerbating what Bernstein considered "cold civil war", citing in 2017 Trump administration's scapegoating of Hillary Clinton amid the Mueller special counsel investigation and in 2019 his efforts to appeal "prejudices" of his supporters toward "the other side" whom they wanted "wiped out".[69][70]

The Washington Post columnist Matt Bai in January 2021 used "a Cold Civil War" in reference to the US "imminent disunion", especially by rural Americans who "live increasingly in their own reality, nourished by their own 'alternative facts' and led by their own reckless leaders" and "separate themselves from [American] urban culture and establishment media".[71]

A media studies professor David A. Love in March 2021 criticized the US Republican Party for instigating "a cold civil war by pushing for unprecedented voter suppression measures targeting minority and marginalised communities".[72]

A Governing magazine contributor Tony Woodlief in October 2021 criticized "political pundits", their use of the term, and their emphases of political class divide for "overlook[ing] ample data illuminating substantial common ground among Americans."[73]

See also

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Look up cold war in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

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  1. ^ Simon Dalby; Gearoid O.u Tuathail (2002). Rethinking Geopolitics. Routledge. p. 67. ISBN 9781134692132.
  2. ^ "Teester;s Belief Held Very Helpful to Him (1934)". The News and Observer. 1934-08-12. p. 2. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  3. ^ "The Nation 1938-03-26: Vol 146 Iss 3795". Nation Company L.P. 26 March 1938.
  4. ^ The Yale book of quotations. 2006. ISBN 9780300107982.
  5. ^ "Nine Million Men Now Under Arms!(1939)". The Chattanooga News. 1939-08-11. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  6. ^ "The Next Peace (1939)". The Atlantic. 1939-08-01. Retrieved 2022-11-11.
  7. ^ "Phrases for Europe of Today; A Hot Peace and a Cold War (1939)". The Chattanooga News. 1939-07-28. p. 4. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  8. ^ "Seaport of Danzig Quiet (1939)". The Cincinnati Enquirer. 1939-08-06. p. 33. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  9. ^ "Poland Shows United Front on Danzig Issue (1939)". The Miami News. 1939-08-06. p. 17. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  10. ^ "The "Cold War" - How Long? (1939)". The Des Moines Register. 1939-11-15. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  11. ^ "Cold War Reason (1939)". The Indianapolis News. 1939-09-16. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-02-12.
  12. ^ Kort, Michael (2001). The Columbia Guide to the Cold War. Columbia University Press. p. 3.
  13. ^ Geiger, Till (2004). Britain and the Economic Problem of the Cold War. Ashgate Publishing. p. 7.
  14. ^ Orwell, George, The Observer, March 10, 1946
  15. ^ Gaddis, John Lewis (2005). The Cold War: A New History. Penguin Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-59420-062-5.
  16. ^ Safire, William (October 1, 2006). "Islamofascism Anyone?". The New York Times. Retrieved December 25, 2008.
  17. ^ History.com Staff (2009). "This Day on History - April 16, 1947: Bernard Baruch coins the term "Cold War"". A+E Networks. Retrieved August 23, 2016. Full quote in the context of industrial labor problems in the United States of America in 1947 which could only solved, according to Bernard Baruch, through "unity" between labor and management which in return would give the United States the power to play its role as the major force by which, in the words of Baruch, "the world can renew itself physically or spiritually.": "Let us not be deceived-we are today in the midst of a cold war. Our enemies are to be found abroad and at home. Let us never forget this: Our unrest is the heart of their success. The peace of the world is the hope and the goal of our political system; it is the despair and defeat of those who stand against us. We can depend only on ourselves."
  18. ^ Lippmann, Walter (1947). Cold War. Harper. ISBN 9780598864048. Retrieved 2008-09-02.
  19. ^ Marks, M.P. (2011). "Metaphors of International Security". Metaphors in International Relations Theory. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 107–135. doi:10.1057/9780230339187_6. ISBN 978-1-349-29493-0.
  20. ^ Meyskens, Covell (2023-08-23). "China's Strategic Space in the Mao Era". National Bureau of Asian Research. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  21. ^ Oko, Captain Adolf S. Jr. (June 1964). "Francis Drake and Nova Albion". California Historical Society Quarterly. XLIII (2): 135–158. doi:10.2307/25155641. JSTOR 25155641.
  22. ^ "BRITAIN AND RUSSIA FOUGHT A 19TH CENTURY COLD WAR". Chicago Tribune. 30 September 1992. Retrieved 2022-08-08. Like the Cold War, the Great Game was largely a proxy battle whose protagonists rarely confronted each other directly.
  23. ^ Share, Michael (2004-10-01). "Along the fringes of 'the great game': imperial Russia and Hong Kong, 1841–1907". The Round Table. 93 (377): 725–737. doi:10.1080/0035853042000300205. ISSN 0035-8533. S2CID 154849203. A century ago a Cold War raged on the political, ideological, economic, military, and cultural fronts between the UK and an authoritarian Russian state which was perceived as threatening British imperial interests in India and elsewhere in Asia. Until the end of the 19th century, liberal Britain was arguably Russia's foremost enemy.
  24. ^ Dean, Riaz (2020-01-19). Mapping the Great Game: Explorers, Spies and Maps in 19th-Century Asia. Casemate. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-61200-815-8. Others suggest it continued well after this time, that 'the game' was really the Victorian prologue to the cold war years...
  25. ^ Hopkirk, Peter (2006-03-27). "Prologue". The Great Game. John Murray Press. ISBN 978-1-84854-477-2. Some would argue that the Great Game has never really ceased, and that it was merely the forerunner of the Cold War of our own times...
  26. ^ "The Great Game, 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia | Reviews in History". reviews.history.ac.uk. Retrieved 2022-08-08. Sergeev is especially concerned to subvert understandings in which the Great Game is viewed as 'a Victorian cold war'
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  28. ^ Bovt, George (31 March 2015). "Who Will Win the New Cold War?". The Moscow Times. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  29. ^ Trenin, Dmitri (2 March 2014). "The crisis in Crimea could lead the world into a second cold war". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  30. ^ Dmitri Trenin (4 March 2014). "Welcome to Cold War II". Foreign Policy. Graham Holdings. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  31. ^ As Cold War II Looms, Washington Courts Nationalist, Rightwing, Catholic, Xenophobic Poland, Huffington Post, 15 October 2015.
  32. ^ "Cold war 2.0: how Russia and the west reheated a historic struggle". The Guardian. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 24 October 2016.
  33. ^ Eve Conant (12 September 2014). "Is the Cold War Back?". National Geographic. National Geographic Society. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  34. ^ Simon Tisdall (19 November 2014). "The new cold war: are we going back to the bad old days?". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 4 February 2015.
  35. ^ Philip N. Howard (1 August 2012). "Social media and the new Cold War". Reuters. Reuters Commentary Wire. Archived from the original on 3 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
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  37. ^ Saab, Bilal Y. (18 October 2016). "Why an Iran-Saudi Arabia Conflict Is More Likely Today Than Ever Before". Newsweek. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
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  41. ^ Dreazen, Yochi (27 March 2015). "In Yemen, the Middle East's cold war could get hot". The Washington Post. Retrieved 18 October 2016.
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  67. ^ "After US–Russia Cold War, Are India–China Headed Towards the Same Path?". The EurAsian Times. 2 April 2018. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
  68. ^ Codevilla, Angelo M. (Spring 2017). "The Cold Civil War". Claremont Review of Books. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  69. ^ Bernstein, Carl (29 October 2017). "CNN Reliable Sources: Aired October 29, 2017 – 11:00 ET". CNN (transcript). Interviewed by Brian Stelter. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  70. ^ Bernstein, Carl (1 March 2019). "Cuomo Prime Time: Aired March 1, 2019 – 22:00 ET". CNN (transcript). Interviewed by Chris Cuomo. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  71. ^ Bai, Matt (January 18, 2021). "Opinion | Biden's challenge: A speech for the Cold Civil War". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
  72. ^ Love, David A. (29 March 2021). "Opinion – A cold civil war is being waged in America". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 16 July 2024.
  73. ^ Woodlief, Tony (October 8, 2021). "Is America in 'a Cold Civil War'? Not at All". Governing. Retrieved July 16, 2024.

Further reading

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