We Are About To Lazily Slide Into Another Cold War

In the space of just one week, the influential American news and opinion outlet Foreign Policy published no less than three pieces demanding US and Western policymakers confront China more forcefully on human rights, shipping, finance, climate change, quantum computing, and microchips.

- BORZOU DARAGAHI

Just in case anyone missed the point, another called on Washington to create an "economic war council" to add a financial component to China.

A new cold war is being thrust upon the world - one that could shape lives and nations for decades to come.

But many in the world are ill-prepared and ill-informed about the battle lines taking shape. Already elites across the world are envisioning a 21st century defined by economic, intelligence, diplomatic relations and perhaps military conflicts between two camps: a US-led series of alliances and partnerships that include Nato and major Asia-Pacific nations, and a Eusrasian-led alliance of China and Russia and their respective partners, including North Korea, Belarus, and Iran.

Latin America, the Middle East and Africa seem keen to remain unaligned, and may turn into battlegrounds between the two camps.

The rivalry could get out of hand, with dynamics in Washington and Beijing leading the Western world into a gratuitous confrontation between nuclear powers.

Debate is stifled in the autocracies of Eurasia. Chinese media and think tanks recognise the possibility of a long, dangerous period of hostility between the world's two biggest powers, but almost exclusively blame the US for its actions. A dangerous groupthink has also set in around Washington, with Republicans and Democrats attempting to outdo each other with hawkish positions on China.