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The New Cold War?

  • 09-10-2012 1:36pm
    #1
    Bigfellalixnaw
    Registered Users Posts: 140 ✭✭


    With the amount of influence that Putin's Russia is trying to put on bordering nations (such as the Ukraine and Georgia) and even the setting up of a potential rival to the EU, the Eurasian Union, do you think that we are looking at new Cold War?
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    Conmaicne Mara
    Closed Accounts Posts: 6,543 ✭✭✭Conmaicne Mara


    Not sure about a cold war but there's a very real cyber war ongoing between many nations, energy has also come into play big time. Russia seems to be bullying with their energy supplies. China is different, using technology and investment to bring nations into their sphere.


  • #3
    Bigfellalixnaw
    Registered Users Posts: 140 ✭✭Bigfellalixnaw


    There is the Russian's saber-rattling about rebuilding their nuclear arsenal again in response to the European missile shield being set up in Eastern Europe against any preemptive strike from Iran.


  • #4
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »
    There is the Russian's saber-rattling about rebuilding their nuclear arsenal again in response to the European missile shield being set up in Eastern Europe against any preemptive strike from Iran.

    Can you give examples of what you see as saber rattling?
    Is the missile shield European or American?- again you could do with providing more information.
    Also you have given no information about setting up of a rival to EU in OP- please elaborate.


  • #5
    Chuck Stone
    Closed Accounts Posts: 13,030 ✭✭✭✭Chuck Stone


    I don't believe the original one really ended; if it had then NATO would have stood down after the collapse of the USSR.

    Last time I checked it appeared that Russia and China is encircled by NATO and the US is still very much motivated by its Full Spectrum Superiority military doctrine.


  • #6
    Benny_Cake
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,205 ✭✭✭Benny_Cake


    Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »
    With the amount of influence that Putin's Russia is trying to put on bordering nations (such as the Ukraine and Georgia) and even the setting up of a potential rival to the EU, the Eurasian Union, do you think that we are looking at new Cold War?

    Like it or not, from the Russian perspective, NATO moving into the territory of the former Warsaw Pact countries was the start of a new Cold War. Unfortunately the opportunity to dissolve NATO or form a new security organisation by merging with the Warsaw Pact in the early 1990s wasn't seized.


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  • #7
    Bigfellalixnaw
    Registered Users Posts: 140 ✭✭Bigfellalixnaw


    jonniebgood1 wrote: »
    Can you give examples of what you see as saber rattling?
    Is the missile shield European or American?- again you could do with providing more information.
    Also you have given no information about setting up of a rival to EU in OP- please elaborate.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18172726
    http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/eurasian-union-dream-would-mimic-ex-soviet-union/

    Try that for starters, then make up your mind.


  • #8
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18172726
    http://www.wnd.com/2012/09/eurasian-union-dream-would-mimic-ex-soviet-union/

    Try that for starters, then make up your mind.

    For a start from your BBC link it is NOT a european missile shield as you stated in a previous post- it is NATO, an organisation who were set up with the aim "to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down".
    Source -"The Atlantic Alliance Under Stress: US-European Relations after Iraq" by David M. Andrews pg 61.

    A link to WND as per last post should come with a warning- it is more right wing than fox news with an almost paranoid outlook in relation to Americas view on the rest of the world. So I would not be inclined to take their worries to seriously.

    On the basis of that as evidence I would say the missile tests are a natural reaction to the sheild deployment. Both developments are unfortunate and wasting of money.


  • #9
    Bigfellalixnaw
    Registered Users Posts: 140 ✭✭Bigfellalixnaw


    jonniebgood1 wrote: »

    A link to WND as per last post should come with a warning- it is more right wing than fox news with an almost paranoid outlook in relation to Americas view on the rest of the world. So I would not be inclined to take their worries to seriously.
    Oops, didn't know they were of that orientation. Hope you have nothing personal against the dailymail.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2140444/A-new-Cold-War-Why-Russias-nuclear-arsenal-seriously.html


  • #10
    jonniebgood1
    Registered Users Posts: 3,577 ✭✭✭jonniebgood1


    Bigfellalixnaw wrote: »
    Oops, didn't know they were of that orientation. Hope you have nothing personal against the dailymail.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2140444/A-new-Cold-War-Why-Russias-nuclear-arsenal-seriously.html

    Its a rag paper but I accept that there are people who take that view. The type of analysis in the Mail is quite aptly demonstrated in that article including the following ridiculous quotes:
    A quick glance at the map will show that the Kaliningrad radar can’t protect Russia from Iranian missiles, unless those wily ayatollahs choose to bend it like Beckham.
    Indeed the real fear is that the Iranians might have a nuclear missile that they can bend like beckham!!!

    and also their summary:
    It’s a dangerous mistake to think that Russian politicians are like Barack or Dave, chaps who’ll think one thing, say another and do a third just to be elected. Putin and his stooges don’t have to be elected, and they occasionally mean what they say.


  • #11
    Bigfellalixnaw
    Registered Users Posts: 140 ✭✭Bigfellalixnaw


    Another angle to this thread would be good old fashioned espionage, albeit the spy-rings being exposed by east and west nowadays are just pantomimes (in the case of the Russian spy-ring in the US a couple of years ago). That said the Russians seem to be more in control on home ground in their setup operation of British spies (I think they were MI6 if I'm not mistaken).


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  • #12
    thehistorian
    Registered Users Posts: 3 ✭thehistorian


    Going back to the original point of the message, I think it's an interesting issue to raise. Russia has historically been a country that has expanded itself territorially, reaching it's high point in the post-war years when it had power over Central Asia, and many modern-day East European countries as well as satellites in E.Europe. For the first time in a long time, Russian (if we can call it that) control over territory was significantly reduced following the Cold War.

    Now that Russia is reasonably powerful again, could we see Russian expansionism once more? I personally think that it is unlikely as from what I know of the former Soviet Republics, most would not want to be part of an alliance with Russia once more. For historical and cultural reasons, the principal exceptions to this could be Ukraine and Belarus..


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