In my view the new cold war is a quadrilateral contest, the four parties being China the US, Russia and Europe. One can say that if America’s cold war against Russia and China is in an early stage, the same against Europe can be depicted as in a ‘pre-early’ stage. Europe is no more an American ally (as it was during the first cold war) — if not an established adversary, certainly a competitor. It was bound to be so once the cold war with the Soviet Union was over.

One big difference between the old and the new cold wars is that the former was fought on ideological grounds while the latter one is totally devoid of this factor. Now it is all capitalism. In China’s case the only difference is that it is state capitalism. Today’s contention between different capitalist powers can be roughly compared to the British-French rivalry in the 18th and 19th centuries over colonies.

Europe is slowly and steadily emerging as a challenging force to American hegemony rather than Russia and China. Having unity of purpose with the US of defending and promoting the capitalist mode of economic order, Europe inherits some very strong cultural and historical values that differentiate it from the US.

The people of Europe had a long, sustained arduous struggle to come out of darkness by defeating dominance of the combined forces of feudalism and the church. Only then were they able to earn the much-cherished values of liberty, equality, fraternity, democracy and human rights.

There is no such history as America’s case.

Abdul Khalique Junejo

Karachi