The Cold War 2.0: Russia vs. The West : Reigniting the Arms Race

As chasm grows between a resurgent Russia and a divided US and Europe, diplomats say conflict is now more dangerous, with ‘no clear rules of the road’ . Warnings of a return to cold war politics have been a staple of European debate for three years, but in recent weeks many western diplomats, politicians and analysts have come to believe the spring has indeed been released. Russia is being reassessed across western capitals. The talk is no longer of transition to a liberal democracy, but regression. The post-cold war era is over, and a new era has begun. Cold war 2.0, different in character, but potentially as menacing and founded not just on competing interests but competing values. Vladimir Putin, former prime minister under Yeltsin, has drastically changed his predecessor’s policies and Russia’s attitude on the international stage, leading to what many experts have described as a new Cold War. According to Edward Lucas and Mark MacKinnon, Cold War 2.0 started as soon as Putin took office in 2000, as he quickly confronted the West and the US in particular. Lucas argues that this new Cold War is one of power, money and influence while MacKinnon emphasizes on Putin’s will to revive the soul of the USSR and challenge the West on the international stage. For Robert Legvold, the new Cold War really started with the annexation of Crimea by Russia (2014), while previous clashes with the US and its allies (the European Union – EU – in particular) are a series of steps that led to the fracture we are witnessing today. On the other hand, Norwegian historian Odd Arne Westad retorts that the term “Cold War” does not apply to today’s great-power tensions. He argues that the Cold War was an “ideological contest between capitalism and socialism” in which “each side fervently dedicated to its system of economics and governance” and whose outcome was meant to be “total victory or total defeat.” According to him, the “Cold War created the [conflictual] world we live in now (…) but today’s international affairs have moved beyond the Cold War.” Terminology matters and the opposition between Russia and the West that we are witnessing in 2018 is undeniably different in its scope and nature than the bipolar struggle that animated most of the second half of the 20th century. However, in the absence of a better term we believe it remains relevant to refer to the current situation as a new form of Cold War, even if it may sound anachronistic to some. 21st Century Russia sells its developments for profit and at least in the case of Syria asks those like Assad to fight their own battles, perhaps with assistance, but Russia is very weary of repeating a Soviet-Afghan or Vietnam (from an American perspective) scenario. The creation of a pilotless fighter jet is an example of logical military spending that is not in line with the Cold War failures of the USSR. As stated above because of human physical limitations new fighter jets will have to be drones in order to be competitive. This is just the nature and direction of war, creating this sort of project is a logical next step and justified spending. This is not the same as Brezhnev era reasoning that if the Americans have X number of ICBMs with nuclear warheads (enough to destroy the entire world) then we need to build X + 1000 ICBMs to show them who’s boss, while the populous has to resort to sewing their own clothing due to deficits. 1 F35 jet aircraft. price: $89 million . 89 million (without the engine or weapons) plus 85,000 maintenance per hour of flight time, plus 1/2 million for hangers, dc generators and a minimum of 10,000 highly specialized flight engineers. 1 S400 anti-aircraft system with 9 launchers and 125 missiles. price: $300 million . So, $2.4 million per missile. What this means is that a nation defending itself from one F35 aircraft has 37 chances to shoot it down before their cost exceeds yours (the ratio for capital ships is even worse). The cost on the F35 side is understated however. The support systems, ordinance, training etc... all that is extra. It's probably safe to say that the cost ratio between offense vs defense in the above scenario is about 50 to 1. Not a bad deal if you're a small nation looking to defend your airspace. Far more cost effective than an air force, which you don't need anyway unless you're the aggressor. The beauty of it is, from a Russian standpoint, the system pays for itself in sales to friendly nations - nations that don't want, for example, to be attacked by F35s. The problem is that the F-35 has to get much closer to target have any munitions able to hit a ground target. Jassm ER can only reach around 500 miles and require external hard points which adds to RCS (makes it easier to hit). The next issue is that even a squadron of F-35s could not carry enough extend range missiles to overload a single S-400 battery even if they had no secondary measures up. In order to hit the batteries they would have to get much closer and use standoff weapons which fit inside the bays but put the aircraft well with in range of the air defense systems. It basically comes down to the F-35 getting close enough to be able to fire and hit the system before it locks on to the open bomb bay door, it would be a very risky situation for the pilots and over time the scenario favors the AD due to gain signal int. each strike. That would also be why we are butt hurt about Turkey having S-400s because they can gather sig int on F-35s. No matter what the Mainstream Media try to push onto social media, despite sanctions, things in Russia are fine. The stores are full of things, much of which is made in Russia, including food which Russia now exports more than it imports. Starving out Russia like the West did with sanctions on the Soviet Union during the Interwar Period is not going to go so well this time. The dynamic by which Cold War 2.0 will play out is simply not the same or as simple as making cool computer graphics to show to a treacherous hapless Gorbachev. Yes Russia is being forced to spend to “keep up” with the much wealthier United States, but this time around it is able to do this in a much smarter way, with Capitalism on its side and no need to produce vast mountains of useless weapons to support lazy “allies” or show the Americans they have “more” or something, the logic of Cold War 2.0 is just simply different. This new Hunter drone project is a good example of this. It is something the Russian military actually needs, seems to work (thus far) and that isn’t breaking the national budget, and could be sold in a few years to Multipolarity fans with big bucks in nations that don’t develop advanced arms. If Russia continues on this reasonable path of development we are in for a long Mexican Standoff this time, and perhaps that is a good thing. Perhaps Russia's capitalism and fundamentally Christian (Russian Orthodox) orientation are why the US political left demonizes Russia. These features give Russian culture a lot in common with "traditional" American values. This commonality should have been the basis of a deep post-Cold War alliance and friendship between the US and Russia. The left seeks to destroy these values, both in the US and worldwide. It may explain why the Mainstream media and the left try to portray Trump, a capitalist aligned with traditional values, as in cahoots with Russia as they seek to tear down both Trump and Russia. I advise everyone to re-read the predictions of Edgar Cayce. He said that from Russia (not Marxist, not Bolshevik, not communist), Hope would come and a new principle of interaction between countries would arise. Hope will come, not Salvation, an understanding will come of what needs to be done and in what direction it is necessary to go. And everyone has to go this difficult way himself. I already wrote that in the beginning of the 80s the USA had something to learn. But not now. After the CIA hired Saudi Wahhabis with the money of American simpletons, and they brutally cracked down on Syrian Christians ( and Muslims) ,and after Russian Orthodox Christians, Muslims and atheists saved everyone else .For me the USA as a Christian Country founded by Christians died.The modern USA has become a monster of nihilism like the USSR .





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