Is the Cold War Really Over?

They used to call it a “conceptual framework” or a “model,” but these days Thomas Kuhn’s fancier term “paradigm” is gaining ground. Whatever we decide to call it, it is pretty clear by now that the one that has served us well for the last forty years, giving us a more or less agreed-upon way of explaining the world and ordering priorities, is breaking down. The old truths are losing their compelling power and their audience, and there is a groping for new organizing principles.

Evidence of this groping is all around us. Hardly a day passes without some deep thinker holding forth about “the end of the cold war” or “the death of Communism.” We are assured that with the emergence of Japan and the approach of 1992 we are heading toward an era of “multipolarity.” After a shaky start about two decades ago, “interdependence” is making a vigorous comeback, once again accompanied by the claim that it makes war obsolescent if not entirely obsolete.

OH

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Owen Harries

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They used to call it a “conceptual framework” or a “model,” but these days Thomas Kuhn’s fancier term “paradigm” is gaining ground. Whatever we decide to call it, it is pretty clear by now that the one that has served us well for the last forty years, giving us a more or less agreed-upon way of explaining the world and ordering priorities, is breaking down. The old truths are losing their compelling power and their audience, and there is a groping for new organizing principles.

Evidence of this groping is all around us. Hardly a day passes without some deep thinker holding forth about “the end of the cold war” or “the death of Communism.” We are assured that with the emergence of Japan and the approach of 1992 we are heading toward an era of “multipolarity.” After a shaky start about two decades ago, “interdependence” is making a vigorous comeback, once again accompanied by the claim that it makes war obsolescent if not entirely obsolete.