A cold war is a state of
conflict
Conflict may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''Conflict'' (1921 film), an American silent film directed by Stuart Paton
* ''Conflict'' (1936 film), an American boxing film starring John Wayne
* ''Conflict'' (1937 film) ...
between nations that does not involve direct
military action
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
but is pursued primarily through
economic
An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...
and political actions,
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
, acts of
espionage
Espionage, spying, or intelligence gathering is the act of obtaining secret or confidential information (intelligence) from non-disclosed sources or divulging of the same without the permission of the holder of the information for a tangibl ...
or
proxy war
A proxy war is an armed conflict between two states or non-state actors, one or both of which act at the instigation or on behalf of other parties that are not directly involved in the hostilities. In order for a conflict to be considered a pr ...
s waged by surrogates. This term is most commonly used to refer to the
American-Soviet Cold War of 1947–1991. The surrogates are typically states that are
satellites
A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...
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.
Origins of the term
The expression "cold war" was rarely used before 1945. Some writers credit the fourteenth century Spaniard
Don Juan Manuel
Don Juan Manuel (5 May 128213 June 1348) was a Spanish medieval writer, nephew of Alfonso X of Castile, son of Manuel of Castile and Beatrice of Savoy. He inherited from his father the great Lordship of Villena, receiving the titles of Lord, Du ...
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.
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".
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". 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.
Graham Hutton
David Graham Hutton OBE (13 April 1904 – 14 October 1988), was a British economist, writer and Liberal Party politician.
Background
Hutton was born the elder son of David and Lavinia Hutton. He was educated at Christ's Hospital, the Londo ...
, Associate Editor of ''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...
'' used the term in an essay of his that was published in the August 1939 edition of ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'' (today ''The Atlantic''). The essay, titled "The Next Peace," 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. The Poles claimed that this period involved "provocation by manufactured incidents." It was also speculated that cold war tactics by the Germans could weaken Poland's resistance to invasion.
During the war, the term was also used in less lasting ways, for example to describe the prospect of winter warfare, or in opinion columns encouraging American politicians to make a cool-headed assessment before deciding whether to join the war or not.
At the end of
World War II,
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His work is characterised by lucid prose, social criticism, opposition to totalitari ...
used the term in the essay "You and the
Atom Bomb
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...
" published on October 19, 1945, in the British magazine ''
Tribune''. Contemplating a world living in the shadow of the threat of
nuclear war
Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear ...
, he warned of a "peace that is no peace", which he called a permanent "cold war". Orwell directly referred to that war as the ideological confrontation between the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
and the
Western powers. Moreover, in ''
The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' of March 10, 1946, Orwell wrote that "
ter the
Moscow conference last December, Russia began to make a 'cold war' on
Britain
Britain most often refers to:
* The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands
* Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...
and the
British Empire
The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts ...
."
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
Geopolitics (from Greek γῆ ''gê'' "earth, land" and πολιτική ''politikḗ'' "politics") is the study of the effects of Earth's geography (human and physical) on politics and international relations. While geopolitics usually refers to ...
tensions between the USSR and its satellites and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and its western European allies (which in practice acted as satellites of the opposing force) is attributed to
Bernard Baruch
Bernard Mannes Baruch (August 19, 1870 – June 20, 1965) was an American financier and statesman.
After amassing a fortune on the New York Stock Exchange, he impressed President Woodrow Wilson by managing the nation's economic mobilization in ...
, an American financier and presidential advisor. In South Carolina, on April 16, 1947, he delivered a speech (by journalist
Herbert Bayard Swope) saying, "Let us not be deceived: we are today in the midst of a cold war." Newspaper reporter-columnist
Walter Lippmann
Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...
gave the term wide currency, with the book ''Cold War'' (1947).
The term "hot war" is also occasionally used by contrast, but remains rare in literature on
military theory
Military theory is the analysis of normative behavior and trends in military affairs and military history, beyond simply describing events in war.
Theories and conceptions of warfare have varied in different places throughout human history. T ...
.
Tensions labeled a cold war
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
In his 1964 article of
Francis Drake's New Albion
New Albion, also known as ''Nova Albion'' (in reference to an archaic name for Britain), was the name of the continental area north of Mexico claimed by Sir Francis Drake for England when he landed on the North American west coast in 1579. Th ...
claim,
Adolph S. Oko Jr. described certain 16th century tensions between England and Spain as a cold war.
Great Game
The
Great Game
The Great Game is the name for a set of political, diplomatic and military confrontations that occurred through most of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century – involving the rivalry of the British Empire and the Russian Empi ...
, a colonial confrontation that occurred between the 19th century
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
and
Russian Empires in Asia, has been variously described as a cold war, though this has also been disputed.
Second Cold War
The Second Cold War, also called
Cold War II, Cold War 2.0,
or the New Cold War, is a term describing post-
Cold-War era of political and military tensions between the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and
Russia and/or
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
.
Middle East
Malcolm H. Kerr first coined the term "
Arab Cold War
The Arab Cold War ( ar, الحرب العربية الباردة ''al-Harb al-`Arabiyyah al-bāridah'') was a period of political rivalry in the Arab world from the early 1950s to the late 1970s as part of the broader Cold War. The generally a ...
" to refer to a political conflict inside the
Arab world
The Arab world ( ar, اَلْعَالَمُ الْعَرَبِيُّ '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, refers to a vast group of countries, mainly located in Western As ...
between
Nasserist republics defending
Arab socialism
Arab socialism ( ar, الإشتِراكيّة العربية, Al-Ishtirākīya Al-‘Arabīya) is a political ideology based on the combination of pan-Arabism and socialism. Arab socialism is distinct from the much broader tradition of socialis ...
,
Pan-Arabism
Pan-Arabism ( ar, الوحدة العربية or ) is an ideology that espouses the unification of the countries of North Africa and Western Asia from the Atlantic Ocean to the Arabian Sea, which is referred to as the Arab world. It is closely c ...
, and
Arab nationalism
Arab nationalism ( ar, القومية العربية, al-Qawmīya al-ʿArabīya) is a nationalist ideology that asserts the Arabs are a nation and promotes the unity of Arab people, celebrating the glories of Arab civilization, the language and ...
led by
Nasser's Egypt, against traditionalist
monarchies
A monarchy is a form of government in which a person, the monarch, is head of state for life or until abdication. The political legitimacy and authority of the monarch may vary from restricted and largely symbolic (constitutional monarchy), ...
led by
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries by area, fifth-largest country in Asia ...
.
An
Atlantic Council
The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic pros ...
member Bilal Y. Saab, an
About.com writer Primoz Manfreda, an Iranian scholar
Seyyed Hossein Mousavian and a
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
scholar Sina Toossi, journalist
Kim Ghattas, ''
Foreign Policy
A state's foreign policy or external policy (as opposed to internal or domestic policy) is its objectives and activities in relation to its interactions with other states, unions, and other political entities, whether bilaterally or through ...
'' journalist
Yochi Dreazen
Yochi J. Dreazen (born ) is an American journalist whose area of expertise is military affairs and national security. , he is the deputy managing editor and foreign editor of Vox and the author of a book, ''The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an ...
,
Brookings Institution
The Brookings Institution, often stylized as simply Brookings, is an American research group founded in 1916. Located on Think Tank Row in Washington, D.C., the organization conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in ec ...
researcher
Sultan Barakat, and ''
Newsweek
''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...
'' journalist Jonathan Broder use the term "cold war" to refer to tensions between
Saudi Arabia and Iran.
In February 2016, a
University of Isfahan
The University of Isfahan (UI) (Persian: دانشگاه اصفهان Dāneshgāh-e Esfāhān) is a state-operated university located in Isfahan, Iran. It is ranked among the top 10 universities in Iran. The university is located on Azadi square ...
professor Ali Omidi dismissed the assumptions that the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia would grow tense.
South Asia
A commentator Ehsan Ahrari, a writer
Bruce Riedel, a political commentator
Sanjaya Baru and a Princeton University academic
Zia Mian
Zia Mian (Urdu: ضياء میاں ) is a Pakistani-American physicist, nuclear expert, nuclear policy maker and research scientist at Princeton University.
Currently, he is the director of the Project on Peace and Security in South Asia, at ...
have used the term "cold war" since 2002 to refer to
long-term tensions between India and Pakistan, which were part of the
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...
until its
partition in 1947.
East Asia
A
Naval Postgraduate School
The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) is a public graduate school operated by the United States Navy and located in Monterey, California.
It offers master’s and doctoral degrees in more than 70 fields of study to the U.S. Armed Forces, DOD ...
academic Edward A. Olsen, a British politician
David Alton
David Patrick Paul Alton, Baron Alton of Liverpool, (born 15 March 1951) is a British politician.
He is a former Liberal Party and later Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament who has sat as a crossbench member of the House of Lords since 199 ...
, a
York University
York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...
professor Hyun Ok Park, and a
University of Southern California
, mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it"
, religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist
, established =
, accreditation = WSCUC
, type = Private research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $ ...
professor David C. Kang used the term to refer to
tensions between North Korea and South Korea, which have been
divided
Division is one of the four basic operations of arithmetic, the ways that numbers are combined to make new numbers. The other operations are addition, subtraction, and multiplication.
At an elementary level the division of two natural numbers ...
since the end of World War II in 1945. They interchangeably called it the "Korean Cold War". In August 2019, 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."
China's
Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng, ''
The Diplomat
''The Diplomat'' is an international online news magazine covering politics, society, and culture in the Indo-Pacific region. It is based in Washington, D.C.
It was originally an Australian bi-monthly print magazine, founded by Minh Bui Jone ...
'' editor Shannon Tiezzi, and ''The Guardian'' columnist
Simon Tisdall used the term to refer to
tensions between China and Japan.
China and the Soviet Union
British writer
Edward Crankshaw
Edward Crankshaw (3 January 1909 – 30 November 1984) was a British writer, author, translator and commentator; best known for his work on Soviet affairs and the Gestapo (Secret State Police) of Nazi Germany.
Biography
William Edward Crankshaw ...
used the term to also refer to the
Sino-Soviet relations
SinoSoviet relations (; russian: Советско-китайские отношения, ''Sovetsko-kitayskiye otnosheniya''), or China–Soviet Union relations, refers to the diplomatic relationship between China (both the Chinese Republic of 19 ...
after the
Sino-Soviet split
The Sino-Soviet split was the breaking of political relations between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union caused by doctrinal divergences that arose from their different interpretations and practical applications of Marxism–Len ...
. "Spy wars" also occurred between the USSR and PRC.
China and India
Imran Ali Sandano of the
University of Sindh, Arup K. Chatterjee of the
Jindal Global Law School, journalist
Bertil Lintner, writer
Bruno Maçães, politician-lawyer
P. Chidambaram
Palaniappan Chidambaram (born 16 September 1945), better known as P. Chidambaram, is an Indian politician and lawyer who currently serves as Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha. He served as the Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee ...
, politician and journalist
Sanjay Jha, and some others
use the terms like "new cold war" to refer to
growing tensions between China and India.
References
Further reading
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cold War (General Term)
Warfare by type
Wars by type
Geopolitical rivalry
International relations