Cold Peace: Avoiding the New Cold War

Looming confrontations with China and Russia can be defused with diplomacy, compromise, and liberal socioeconomic policy, according to this sincere yet scattershot study. Columbia University political scientist Doyle (Liberal Peace) surveys sore spots in America’s relations with China and Russia, including economic and military rivalries, the war in Ukraine, clashes over Taiwan, and Chinese and Russian anger at Western criticisms of their human rights abuses. The author traces these tensions to domestic politics marked by nationalism, populism, and imperial nostalgia, and a need for foreign enemies and military adventures to distract the public from corrupt, authoritarian rule in Russia and China and economic inequality in the U.S. Doyle’s proposals to maintain a “cold peace” include resolving the war in Ukraine by allowing Crimeans to choose between Russia and Ukraine and withdrawing Russian forces from the Donbas, maintaining “constructive ambiguity” over Taiwan’s status as a self-governing part of China, and welcoming Russia and China into international institutions while strengthening alliances among democracies. Doyle offers plenty of insights into contemporary geopolitical frictions, but his historical analogues (such as comparing Russian and China to fascist Italy and Japan) are less persuasive, and his solutions optimistically rely on political leaders in all three countries setting aside short-term benefits in favor of long-term stability. This well-intentioned treatise is more aspirational than actionable. (Apr.)