Hello and welcome to another episode of the Politics Theory of the podcast.

In 1999, in the wake of the Kosovo conflict,

Gilbert Ashkar published a book titled The New Cold War, The World After Kosovo.

At the time, describing tensions between the United States, Russia and China, in terms of a Cold War,

seem to many to be outlandish hyperbole, or very premature at best.

Now, of course, the use of the term to describe the global situation is increasingly commonplace,

but if we are indeed in a Cold War, the question arises, when did it begin?

Should it be dated in Russia's case to the 2008 Georgia War, in China to the rise of Xi Jinping

and the repression in Hong Kong, or do we need to think back much further?

In today's episode, Gilbert joins the show to discuss his new book, The New Cold War,

the US, Russia and China,

from Kosovo to Ukraine, in which he builds upon his earlier work to argue that the current

situation is rooted in events and key decisions made during the 1990s, including the devastating

collapse of the Russian economy, the failure to create a new security architecture

in Europe after the end of the Cold War, and in increasing US-China tensions over Taiwan

and other security matters, which were obscured by the deepening economic integration of the two

states at the time. In the following interview, we discussed these topics, as well as why

Gilles-Bair thinks it's appropriate to describe Vladimir Putin's regime as neo-fascist,

why recognising NATO enlargement as being a vector for Russian nationalism,

does not in any way justify the invasion of Ukraine,

and we also talked about what Jolbert thinks a more just international order might look like.

The podcast wouldn't be possible without the very kind support of its listeners, and if you

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