— Ch. 1 · Origins And Terminology —
Second Cold War.
~5 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
The phrase new Cold War first appeared in 1955 when US Secretary of State John Foster Dulles used it to describe rising tensions. A New York Times article from the following year warned that Soviet propaganda was attempting to resurface the conflict. Academics Fred Halliday, Alan M. Wald, David S. Painter, and Noam Chomsky later applied these interchangeable terms to specific phases between 1979 and 1991. Columnist William Safire argued in a 1975 editorial that the Nixon administration's policy of détente had failed and that Cold War II was already underway. Academic Gordon H. Chang used the term to describe the period after President Richard Nixon met with Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong in 1972. George Kennan described the May 1998 Senate vote to expand NATO as the beginning of a new cold war. He predicted that Russians would react adversely and change their policies accordingly. Foreign policy experts James M. Lindsay and Ivo Daalder described counterterrorism as the new Cold War in 2001. British journalist Edward Lucas wrote in February 2008 that a new cold war between Russia and the West had already begun.
Russia West Tensions
Analysts point to Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea as the moment tensions rose dramatically between Moscow and the West. By August 2014, both sides had implemented economic, financial, and diplomatic sanctions upon each other. Virtually all Western countries led by the US and European Union imposed punitive measures on Russia. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev stated at the Munich Security Conference in February 2016 that they had slid back to a new Cold War. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov argued in September 2016 that current tensions were not comparable to the original conflict due to a lack of ideological divide. In March 2018, President Vladimir Putin told journalist Megyn Kelly that individuals claiming a new Cold War started were merely doing propaganda. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov later stated in July 2024 that they were taking steady steps towards the Cold War with direct confrontation returning. Polish retired general Stanisław Koziej wrote in 2024 that this cold war is similar to the first one but employs hybrid activities. Sabine Siebold noted for Reuters in October 2025 that it feels hotter than the Cold War in the 80s because a war is raging on European territory.