Revisiting the First Cold War

This important book forensically examines dynamics within the ‘First Cold War’ between the United States and the Soviet Union in order to provide insights into today’s ‘Second Cold War’ between the US and China. In a compelling narrative that spans several decades, the authors draw out a range of lessons for navigating this conflict from the 1945-1991 period, not least the role of ideological polarisation in sustaining geopolitical enmity, and the role of diplomacy in ending it. These are crucial insights for scholars, students and policy makers alike.

Professor George Lawson, Professor of International Relations, Australia National University (ANU)

The deteriorating relationship between China and the United States has caused many analysts to argue we are entering a second Cold War. But how much do we actually really understand about the decades long U.S.-Soviet ideological and geopolitical rivalry that marked world politics in the decades after the Second World War? In this important study, Aiden Warren and Joseph Siracusa bring seasoned historical eyes to revisit a conflict that shaped the second half of the twentieth century, providing much needed insights that should inform our understanding of the complex and dangerous world we face today.

Francis J. Gavin, Giovanni Agnelli Distinguished Professor and Director of the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies

In elegant and engaging prose, Aiden Warren and Joseph Siracusa revisit the diplomatic dynamics in America’s Cold War. They deftly trace the interactions of major players across nine different US Presidential administrations, illuminating the historical legacies that continue to shape America’s role in a  world that today has changed dramatically. This is a terrific, balanced, and grounded overview of some of the most consequential moments of the Cold War, in which they trace how participants’ beliefs and interests sometimes coincided and often collided to shape outcomes in international politics. Anyone looking to bring in IR concepts – such as threats, supremacy, containment, deterrence, isolationism, alignment, nationalism, and spheres of influence – in  America’s new bipolar contest with China should first take a look at how they played out historically among allies 

and rivals in this concise and timely book.

Saadia M. Pekkanen, Job and Gertrud Tamaki Endowed Professor, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington

Aiden Warren is Professor at the School of Global, Urban and Social Studies at RMIT University in Melbourne, and Theme Leader (National Security) at the Centre for Cyber Security Research and Innovation (CCSRI). He is a Fulbright Scholar and has spent extensive time in Washington DC completing fellowships at the James Martin Center of Non-proliferation, the Arms Control Association (ACA), and Institute for International Science and Technology Policy (IISTP) at George Washington University. Professor Warren is the author of US Foreign Policy and China: Security Challenges Across the Bush, Obama and Trump Administrations (2021), Understanding Presidential Doctrines (2022), and Global Security Crisis in an Age of Crisis (2024).

Joseph M. Siracusa is Professor and Inaugural Dean of Global Futures, Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University, Australia, and President Emeritus of Australia’s Council for the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. A veteran historian, he is known internationally for his writings on the history of nuclear weapons, diplomacy, and global security. He is the author of numerous books, including, Nuclear Weapons: A Very Short Introduction (3rd edn, 2020), and Presidential Doctrines: U. S. National Security from George Washington to Joe Biden (2022).