OLD OR NEW COLD WAR? IS THE NEW COLD WAR A CONTINUATION OF THE OLD?

Abstract

The launch of perestroika and in particular the collapse of the Soviet Union, which, shortly before, was still characterized by US President Ronald Reagan as the "Evil Empire", gave the public in the West the impression that the Cold War had definitively ended.
After Russia's occupation of the Crimea and its subsequent annexation, Washington and Brussels imposed certain economic sanctions on Russia. Later, when Russia started supporting the separatists in south-eastern Ukraine through unofficial paramilitary groups and weapons - and especially after the Malaysian Airlines Boeing was downed on the territory of Ukraine - the West introduced harsher sanctions, in response to which Moscow in its turn also introduced retaliatory economic sanctions. NATO is to deploy its forces at new bases in Eastern Europe, in response to the situation in Ukraine.
Given these events, we now frequently can hear opinions about the start of "a new Cold War," although US President Barack Obama considers that "It's not a new Cold War" . Obama's position can be explained as follows: as a politician he does not want relations with Russia to deteriorate further and he still hopes that the situation might improve. Therefore he avoids using the term 'Cold War'. But analysts have to confront the reality and they will recognize that, obviously, a Cold War is going on between the West and Russia. The question is whether this is really "a New Cold War" or that it is a continuation of the Old Cold War.