Challenges of age tackled in new book
THE NEW COLD WAR: HOW THE CONTEST BETWEEN THE U.S. AND CHINA WILL SHAPE OUR CENTURY ROBIN NIBLETT ATLANTIC BOOKS
STIRRING THE POT ANTHONY STIDOLPH
America may now be the greatest colossus in history but the tectonic plates are shifting and its status as the world’s dominant superpower is increasingly being challenged by the rise of China as an economic and political force.
This, in essence, is the subject matter of Sir Robin Niblett’s latest book The New Cold War: How the Contest Between the U.S. and China Will Shape our Century.
The author’s central thesis is that the West has entered a new Cold War, one in which the rules are very different to those that applied in the days of the old Soviet Union.
With two diametrically opposed systems of government — the one opaque, state-controlled and intent on imposing uniformity of thought and action; the other based on free market economics, capitalist entrepreneurship, personal freedoms and the rights of the individual — it was seemingly inevitable that tensions should have escalated between the two nations in recent years.
In this growing contest, it has not helped that America has become a deeply divided, strife-torn nation full of self-doubt and no longer sure of what its status is or how best to manage it relationships with the rest of the world.
The gridlock in America’s politics has, for example, caused a great deal of anxiety among its traditional allies with former U.S. president Donald Trump’s threats and actions, during his presidency, reawakening European fears of abandonment just when a combined strategy on China is most urgently needed.
Although they no longer share the same communist ideology, Vladimir Putin’s own mounting tensions with the West — especially since his invasion of Ukraine — has driven him to align Russia more closely with China although his country is no longer the powerhouse it once was.
Both countries are now actively seeking to draw others into their orbit of influence (as we have seen only too clearly in South Africa under the African National Congress).
Linked to this is another factor affecting the future balance of world power — the growing role and economic clout of those nations which, formerly, used to constitute the nonaligned movement but are now more commonly referred to as the Global South.
Looming large over the whole picture and complicating matters still further is the growing awareness that the amazing human progress enabled by economic globalisation came with an ominous downside: climate change. The implications are huge.
If we breach two degrees celsius of global warming above pre-industrial levels, as is distinctly possible, it will trigger catastrophic environmental damage.
As the author warns — it “is a systematic problem that does not respect international boundaries... It will require a system-level response to which all countries contribute.”
To negotiate this highly polarised world with its “us versus them” mindset and averting the risk of outright conflict with China from becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy, will require great skill and understanding.
In his concluding chapter, Niblett, a leading expert on international relations, makes numerous suggestions as to how we can best achieve this.
The book is thoroughly researched and written with great fluency and skill, his book is as useful a guide as you would want to understand the great challenges facing our age.