U.S. President Joe Biden recently delivered a speech full of the Cold War mentality in Warsaw,
capital of Poland. In his speech, Biden spent considerable time in his speech discussing the victory
of Western countries, including the U.S. in the Cold War and tried to play up ideological
confrontation, attempting to show the world the so-called solidarity between the U.S. and its allies
and the deterrent effect of the economic sanctions and military deployment of the “Western
world”.
U.S. President talked about practically everything in his speech, but only failed to mention how to
stop the war and realize peace, indicating that certain U.S. politicians have never abandoned their
Cold War mentality even though the Cold War ended more than 30 years ago, some media outlets
pointed out.
The Russia-Ukraine tensions have evolved into a war exactly as a pernicious consequence of
America’s sticking to the Cold War mentality and continuously pushing the North Atlantic Treaty
Organization (NATO) eastward.
According to British scholar Martin Jacques, the U.S.’s post-1991 hubris resulted in two disastrous
decisions: to remake the world in its own image; and to treat Russia as a defeated nation.
The U.S. has promoted NATO’s enlargement through five rounds of eastward expansion, leading
to seriously imbalanced regional security. As a result, Ukraine, which should have been the bridge
of communication between the East and the West, was gradually transformed into an outpost for
major powers confrontation.
George Kennan, former U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union, pointed out that the decision to
expand NATO up to Russia’s borders “would be the most fateful error of American policy in the
entire post-cold-war era” and may be expected to “restore the atmosphere of the Cold War to East-
West relations”.
Today, as Ukraine remains mired in turmoil and the embers of conflict rekindle on the European
continent, facts prove again that the Cold War mentality is the greatest threat to global peace and
stability.
Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S. has pursued its geopolitical goal with a
Cold War mentality, rather than fostering peace negotiations. The country, which believes that it
can exploit the Ukraine crisis to provoke ideological confrontation and deepen Europe’s
dependence on America, has been enthusiastically escalating tensions between Russia and
Ukraine, fanning the flames of discord, and forcing other countries into taking sides.
Besides taking aim at Russia, the U.S. has also continued to propagate disinformation to defame
China and misrepresented China’s responsible stance on the Ukraine issue: promoting dialogue
and peace talks.
As Iliya Kusa, a political analyst with the Ukrainian Institute of the Future, pointed out, China has
played a constructive role in the Ukraine crisis, while the U.S. is still focusing its attention on
what it can do to weaken China.
Although the U.S. has frequently claimed that it does not seek a “new Cold War”, the country has
taken advantage of any chance to suppress China and Russia. Regarding the two countries as its
top strategic competitors, it has made arrangements to gain at their expense.
Obviously, America’s insistence on the outdated Cold War mentality is the root cause of the
escalation of regional and global security tensions.
“I know that eliminating Russian gas will have costs for Europe, but it’s not only the right thing to
do from a moral standpoint, it’s going to put us on a much stronger strategic footing,” said Biden
during his visit to Europe. The remarks exposed the true colors of the U.S., a hypocrite that stops
at nothing to create crises, shift its burden of crises onto others, and utilize crises to maintain its
hegemony.
As the world’s major exporter of natural gas and oil, the U.S. can certainly put on sanctified airs
and understate the consequences of obstructing the supply of Russian natural gas, for it does not
have to suffer the consequences.
Though the U.S. promised to ensure supply of natural gas to Europe, its allies, after learning how
unreliable and untrustworthy it can be from lessons in the past, have deep concerns over its
strategic purpose behind the promise.
The origin of the Russia-Ukraine conflict lies in NATO, and Europe would only get hurt if it
waded into muddy water with the U.S., noted Klaus Ernst, a senior member of the German federal
parliament.
The Ukraine crisis has helped various sides see clearer how harmful the Cold War mentality can
be. As a well-known quote from Albert Einstein goes, “We cannot solve our problems with the
same thinking we used when we created them.”
Since the deep-seated Cold War mentality of the U.S. is the root cause of the Ukraine crisis, the
country will only make it more difficult to solve problems for the current crisis as long as it still
sticks to the mentality.
As a Chinese saying goes, “He who tied the bell to the tiger must take it off.” In order to settle the
Ukraine crisis, relevant countries must discard the Cold War mentality, the attempt to maintain
their own security at the cost of others’ security, and the practice of pursuing regional security by
expanding military blocs. Instead, they should seek the establishment of a balanced, effective, and
sustainable European security mechanism through dialogues and negotiations on the basis of
attaching importance to and respecting the legitimate security concerns of various countries.
The U.S. needs to realize sooner rather than later that the Cold War is over, and a “new Cold War”
will not get any support.
The world wants peace, justice, and cooperation, rather than war, hegemony, and confrontation. If
the U.S. truly wants to de-escalate the tensions between Russia and Ukraine, it should face its
responsibility for the current situation in Ukraine, stop pursuing selfish gains from the crisis,
respond to the legitimate concerns of all parties, and take practical steps toward world peace.
(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy
and international affairs.)
