THE COLD WAR, John L. Gaddis, Review
As President Joe Biden officially assumed the highest office of the land and entered the White House, it marked the beginning of an era in American politics and International Relations whose full significance can only be comprehended in retrospect decades into the future. But history can help us ascertain the direction the new epoch is likely to take. An existing superpower is threatened by a putative rising star and the entire globe (or the parts of it that really matter) calibrates its actions to secure its self-interest in the resulting world order. The two main rivals vie for supremacy on a variety of domains until they succeed in subduing their nemesis. The subduing may be inflicted by outside forces, as in the defeat of Nazi Germany, or may be caused by domestic implosion, as occured in the collapse of Soviet Union. But what if both competitors are simply too powerful to be undermined, much less be conquered? It might lead to all-out war. But in the era of nuclear arms, going to