THE COLDEST COLD WAR (2) A New World Order?

In part one of this series we looked at an example of the coldest cold war between America and China, as well as the economic reasons why this war is so much "colder" then the last cold war.

In part two I would like explore the question of why our society is hell bent on ignoring the realities of our relationship with China. As well as the question of which is the greater force in the China-West coldest cold war, economy/stability or influence/change in the world order.
Our close economic ties prevent out government from calling, for example, the North Korean provocation what it is –a proxy event. But the question still remains, why has our diverse, vaunted, and conspiracy-prone media ignored the realties?

One potential answer is that our media and even the public, have justifiably reconciled with the fact that China is now our partner in power. Thus China’s covert actions around the world are part of Chinas right as a super-power. Indeed, this theme is given sufficient if not obsessive coverage.

My question is not why hasn’t the media and larger society at acknowledged the ramifications of China as an emerging super-power. Rather why is there no discussion about the manner of how China is going about their war? Chinas anti-Democratic belief system, allows it to easily support North Korea, a county that literally starves and kills its own people by the 1000’s, and that habitually commits acts of war, but China supports is so long as it weakens American influence.

While we do not even acknowledge the link, China is challenging us in ways that we last saw during our cold war with Russia. We should be aware of the parallel, if only to apply the lessons of the past to the present, but we ignore them, why?

This may all boil to social-psychology; society is experiencing a form of collective Freudian defense mechanism -repression.

Just as the child who has a negative experience in the bathtub may have an aversion to all water as they mature so too the trauma of the last cold war has affected our collective psyche to the extent that we refuse to acknowledge the realities we face. This despite the fact that we "won" the last cold war -akin to the mature individual who "survived/won" their child-hood trauma, but still manifests, perhaps unknowingly, symptoms of that trauma.

Our analogy, like all analogies is imprecise. In this case, the ramifications of our self imposed ignorance are unlike the implications of the individual with an aversion to water. While the person who dislikes water, can choose to avoid his phobia, and if he/she were to encounter the water they could choose to disengage from it, we, America and the west, can ot simply disengage. This lack of choice may be at the heart of why we refuse to acknowledge and confront the issue in the first place.

Now on to the second question.

Will this remain a coldest cold war? Put otherwise will our economic marriage with China -and the ensuing superficial stability it produces- trump the struggle for global supremacy and the forces that seek a new world order.

But before we can answer this larger question let us establish that the nature of the coldest cold war centers on the establishment of a new world order. Currently this is less obvious because the the current benefits, to all sides, of our economic ties relegate the proxy aggressiveness e.g. North Korean actions to the back burner, i.e. The current economic benefits outweigh the push for a new world order. (You could even say that China sees the economic ties and the corollary buildup of its economic might as a necessary step in the push for its new world order).

Either way as the benefits diminish and/or the "new world order" gathers strength and coalesces the symptoms of the coldest cold war will become more pronounced and more cold war-like. In other words, the fact that the coldest cold war is so cold is because there are powerful mitigating factors. As those factors become weaker say as Americas economic might becomes mired in crushing debt, or becomes, relatively, less significant, say as Iran, Turkey, Russia, Brazil, and China coalesce into a potent economic/military force, then we can expect that the push to realign the world order to be more urgent and overt.

To the extent of direct war? Probably not. It is more likely that the degree that a cold war is evident would match the potential benefit of that change to those seeking the change.

From this perspective, the North Korean provocation, Iranian president Ahamdinejad call for a new world order before embarking to Turkey to meet with Erdogan of Turkey and Putin Of Russia (http://www.infowars.com/ahmadinejad-stresses-need-for-new-world-order/) , and Brazil and Turkeys failed attempt to broker a nuclear swap deal -to head off sanctions on Iran- are part of a larger and accelerating trend.

It is no coincidence, then, that this trend is becoming increasingly evident as the America and the West flounder economically, and militarily.

At the same time the fact that Brazil and Turkey failed, and that sanctions, however inane (and even insidious, please see post on http://factoru.blogspot.com/2010/06/what-do-latest-unsc-sanctions-on-iran.html) passed against Iran are both indicators of a emerging and definable coalition opposing the old American dominated word, and that America is still the leader and a potent force. Which in turn explains why we are still involved in the coldest cold war, with China.


Taken as a whole it seems that we are in the midst of a calculated and predictable progression from coldest cold war to cold war; from covert war to thinly veiled overt war. This reflects an underlying consensus in both China and America, acknowledged or otherwise that should there be a shift in the world order it should unfold in a stable and progressive manner. Let us hope that it is China and not its less pragmatic partners that continues to guide and lead the coalition for a new world order.

For our part, we in America need to recognize the signs. We are in the midst of deeply veiled war, in the past we were victorious, we can be so again. For those that look forward to Americas down fall, remember that the now powerful nations of Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union were once Americas defeated enemies. America is pragmatic not vengeful -it elevates those it defeats- can we be certain that China and its minority partners will do the same?