The Second Cold War?

Por: Mallory Kate Huntley 144517

Relaciones Internacionales

Universidad de las Americas Pueblas

For the younger generation in today's society the Cold War brings up vague ideas of a non-event that we've heard our parents, grandparents and history teachers discuss. However, could a second Cold War be on the horizon? And be a very realistic threat at that?

Because of the United States and NATO's new missile defense shield system, the Russians are all up in arms...literally. The missile defense shield is a system of advanced radar systems and interceptor missiles placed on both land and sea throughout Europe that is set to be released in 2020. The Russians however, are not in accordance with this agreement and are threatening serious action if the United States does not include Russia more in the planning process. 

Today, November 23, the Russian President Medvedev threatened to not only deploy missiles in order to destroy NATO and United States missile defense stations, but also hinted at a withdrawal from the START treaty. The START treaty was set up as a nuclear disarmament agreement that President Obama has said is vital to Russian/American relations. Medvedev stated that if his demands were not respected, more drastic measures would be implemented. 

The Russians primarily want a written contract stating the specifics of how the defense system would work and details such as how close missiles may come to Russia and her waters. Russia essentially wants to know if this is in her best interest. 

All the while, the United States is claiming that Russia's demands are baseless and that the U.S. has been very open with Russia throughout the entire process.

But what does this mean for us in the long run? One of the giant red flags is Medvedev's threat to pull out from the START treaty. As history has shown us, Russia + United States + Nuclear Weaponry = No Good.

Medvedev has already threatened missile attacks, which would be incentive enough for the United States to strike back because we know that they never take a hit laying down. However, were Medvedev to up the ante with nuclear weaponry we would be in the same spot that we were in many years ago. 

The question this time is though, would both countries hesitate to strike this time around? Or is this the breaking point of threats?