Interpretations and arguments on the so-called “Cold War 2.0”

Abstract

The so-called Cold War 2.0 represents the set of political clashes at an international level, involving the United States and the Russian Federation, related to the interpretation indefiniteness on the promise of NATO’s non-expansion to Eastern Europe discussed in September 1990 (Treaty on the Final Settlement with
Respect to Germany) and doubts about the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. Currently, there is no genuinely global dimension to the phenomenon, nor the solidity of institutional elements in the interstate sphere capable of regulating an arms race; it creates a “rules vacuum”, especially in the domain of nuclear weapons. Once the “geopolitical vacuum” phase of the 1990s has been overcome, old trends are currently observed, such as a new and fierce arms race, the renewal of the space race, intense foreign interference in domestic policy matters and the formation of large economic and military blocs. In short, the Second Cold War, without a clear ideological cleavage between opposing blocs, lacking a solid international institutional architecture capable of containing destabilizing strategic advances, and with multiple moving parts, presents itself as a challenge for international analysis.