Tensions between Moscow and Washington are nothing new, but the growing level of animosity and the dangerous escalation around the political turmoil in Ukraine have ended any remaining illusion that the U.S. and Russia could develop a partnership, working together without rancor toward common goals on the global stage.
Now that Ukraine stands on the edge of civil war, with the two sides clearly delineated—one supported, even controlled, by Russia, the other backed by the U.S. and its Western allies—it looks as if the world has undergone a geopolitical backflip. The calendar seems to have been returned to something resembling the second half of the 20th century, when the dominant conflict shaping the international geopolitical landscape was the rivalry between the U.S. and the Soviet Union.
The question that looms even larger than Ukraine, from a geographic and historical standpoint, is whether we have entered a new Cold War. Are we now moving into Cold War 2.0?