Stephen Cho | Coordinator of the Korean International Forum
December 26, 2023
It is the era of the “New Cold War”. The term “New Cold War” is now commonly used and can be easily found in various media. The “New Cold War” is a new “Cold War” between the anti-imperialist and imperialist camps in the modern era. The current situation is, in short, a dangerous one in which the flames of World War III started in Eastern Europe and are spreading, through the Middle East (West Asia), to East Asia. On a global scale, several anti-imperialist battlefields have been formed under one anti-imperialist united front, which is expanding and intensifying. World War III, the anti-imperialist front, and the “New Cold War” are closely linked.
In order to understand the nature of the “New Cold War”, we should pay attention to its differences with the previous “Cold War”.
First, the “Cold War” and the “New Cold War” had different outbreak timing.
The “Cold War” began with the end of World War II, but the “New Cold War” began with the beginning of World War III. The “Cold War” was initiated to prevent the spread of socialism when the socialist camp was formed globally immediately after World War II. In order to hinder the westward and southward advance of the socialist camps that liberated large parts of Eurasia, “Trumanism” and “containment” policies emerged, the Marshall Plan was implemented in Western Europe, and “ASEAN” was organized in Southeast Asia.
The “New Cold War” began with World War III, a war induced by the imperialist camp to isolate and dismantle the anti-imperialist camp, a war which broke out with Russia’s special military operation in 2022. The war in Ukraine began with the Maidan coup d’état in 2014, an operation born out of by Zbigniew Brezinsky’s “Grand Chessboard” strategy and a new episode of the “color revolutions” orchestrated under the control of the US. The conflict deepened over the next eight years with the massacre of 14,000 people in Donbas, before entering all out with Russia’s special military operation in 2022. This is when World War III broke out. It then deepened with the war in Palestine and the Middle East in 2023, and will enter in full swing with the imminent wars in Taiwan and South Korea.
Second, from the “Cold War” to the “New Cold War”, the camps involved have different characteristics.
The “Cold War” was a confrontation between the socialist camp and the imperialist camp, while the “New Cold War” is between the anti-imperialist camp and the imperialist camp. Therefore, ideological differences were relatively more important in the “Cold War” than in the “New Cold War”.
During the “Cold War”, the ideological orientation toward socialism and its positivity were essential, but in the “New Cold War”, the problems in reality and the negativity caused by imperialism are emphasized.
During the “Cold War”, the socialist camp was divided between the Soviet Union and China, but in the “New Cold War”, Russia and China are united within the anti-imperialist camp.
In the “Cold War”, the Soviet Union and China, the big countries within the socialist camp, each claimed that they were incarnations of socialism; but in the “New Cold War”, there is no disagreement that North Korea, a small country, is the most advanced country on the socialist path.
The “Cold War” began when US imperialism was at its strongest in history. The beginning of the modern imperialist system, in which the imperialist camp is reorganized around US imperialism, coincides with the beginning of the “Cold War”. For example, the US dollar became the world’s reserve currency with the establishment of the Bretton Woods system led by the US after winning World War II. Even the currency crisis that followed the US decision to abandon the gold standard was easily overcome: the US was able to conclude an agreement with OPEC around Saudi Arabia on the exclusive use of dollars for oil-related transactions, paving the way for the rise of petrodollars.
The “New Cold War” began at the height of US imperialism’s political and economic crisis. The US presidential election in 2020 embodied a confrontation between the anti-Deep State forces and the Deep State forces, and it is reported that the Deep State forces are likely to be defeated in the US presidential election in the 2024. US influence is very different than before, as evidenced by the successive rejections of the US-led UN Security Council sanctions against North Korea’s missile launches and the overwhelming passage of the resolution of the ceasefire in Palestine by the UN General Assembly despite US opposition. The US’s status in the global economy has also weakened significantly, as evidenced by the rise of China and the expansion of the BRICS. The petrodollar system is coming to an end, with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries joining the anti-imperialist camp.
Third, the “Cold War” and the “New Cold War” follow different phases of development.
In the period of the “Cold War”, it proceeded without any “hot war” between the socialist camp and the imperialist camp. The “hot wars” were provoked by the imperialist camp against the small countries in the Third world. The examples are the Korean War in the 1950s, the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s and wars in the Middle East waged by the imperialist camp and Israel against Arab countries. At that time, the imperialist camp conducted the “Cold War” against its mains adversaries―the big countries like the Soviet Union and China―not through “hot wars”, but through the invisible wars or the wars without gunfire.
In the period of the “New Cold War”, the “hot wars” and the “Cold Wars” have been conducted simultaneously between the anti-imperialist camp and the imperialist camp. Today, the imperialist camp is waging the “hot war” against Russia, which is a big country, and provoking another “hot war” against China, which is another big country. The imperialist camp, while preparing a “hot war” against China, is already carrying out a “Cold War” against Beijing. The declaration of the “New Washington Consensus” and the “de-risking” mantra merged in 2023, as part of this Cold War against China: they represent a cunning and deceptive attempt at laying the responsibility for the “New Cold War” on China, although the American plan is already clear: igniting the war in Taiwan.
The war in Palestine, the war in Middle East, which broke out in 2023, clearly demonstrate that, in the midst of this “New Cold War”, the imperialist forces are also carrying out “hot wars” against small countries.
While the Korean War in the period of the “Cold War” was the “hot war” which the imperialist camp waged against North Korea, the national liberation country, the Korean War in the period of the “New Cold War” will be the “hot war” which the imperialist camp wages against North Korea, the socialist country. North Korea in the period of the “New Cold War” is, different with itself in the period of the “Cold War”, the military power armed with the nuclear missile.
The last one is the difference between the result of the “Cold War” and prospect of a “New Cold War”.
Although the imperialist camp has won in the “Cold War”, the result of the “New Cold War” will have the opposite results. The “Cold War” ended with a victory for the imperialist camp with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
The socialist camp and its allies, national liberation forces, which were at their height because of the victory of the world anti-fascist forces in World War II, declined with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The rise of the socialist camp and national liberation forces started the “Cold War” and went into in decline after the “Cold War”. The imperialist camp, trying to save itself own internal crisis, contrived the “New Cold War” and provoke World War III in order to carry it out. However, the war in Ukraine in Eastern Europe and war in Palestine in the Middle East are not going the way the imperialist camp hoped they would, thus provoking a crisis within the imperialist camp. The wars to come in Taiwan and in South Korea in east Asia, key for the imperialist camp’s strategy to kick off the “New Cold War”, will decisively lead to the crisis of the imperialist camp. Russia, China, and North Korea are all nuclear and missile powers armed with hydrogen bombs and hypersonic missiles, and the anti-imperialist countries in Middle East including Palestine are strongly armed. Most of all, on all these 3 battlefields, the anti-imperialist camp is waging the just war as the anti-imperialist liberation war. The strategic errors of the imperialist camp are, first, to unite Russia and China in an anti-imperialist camp; second, to push 2 billion Muslims into the anti-imperialist camp; and third, to lose its excuse by the logical contradiction between the anti-Russian propaganda and the pro-Israeli propaganda. As reality shows, Russia is winning on the battlefield in Ukraine and is getting stronger militarily, politically and economically day by day. In the Palestinian and the Middle East wars, it is the Zionist Israel that is isolated, while the anti-Zionist and anti-imperialist forces in the Middle East are uniting and increasing the intensity of their struggle. The outcome of the wars in Taiwan and South Korea will be no different.
