Winning the World: Lessons for America's Future from the Cold War - Hardcover

Thomas M. Nichols

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0275966631 ISBN 13: 9780275966638

Publisher: Praeger, 2002

Synopsis

At the dawn of the 21st century, it should be evident that the Cold War of 1945-1991 was but the first of its kind. Nichols urges the reader to consider previous resolutions before another such conflict arises. He asserts that the Cold War was essentially a clash of ideologies tempered by the ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation. Victory for the West came quietly, without the final and utterly destructive war often envisioned.

Undoubtedly, the end of the Cold War was a signal victory for the West, and for the United States in particular. Yet Nichols reminds that enemies of the ideals of democracy, capitalism, and liberty abound and will lash out against western states that hold true to them. When this occurs, it will be imperative for the West to remember key lessons taken from the Cold War. Nichols argues that conflicts driven by dissonant ideologies differ from wars fought over resources and territory, and must therefore be fought differently.

About this title

About the Author

THOMAS M. NICHOLS is Chairman of the Department of Strategy and Policy at the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. He is the author of The Russian Presidency: Society and Politics in the Second Russian Republic (1999), and The Sacred Cause: Civil-Military Conflict Over Soviet National Security, 1917-1992 (1993).

From the Inside Flap

Undoubtedly, the end of the Cold War was a signal victory for the West, and for the United States in particular. Yet Nichols reminds us that enemies of the ideals of democracy, capitalism, and liberty abound and will lash out against states that hold true to them. When this occurs, it will be imperative for the West to remember key lessons taken from the Cold War. Nichols argues that conflicts driven by dissonant ideologies differ from wars fought over resources and territory, and must therefore be fought differently.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

From Chapter One:

The first major attack of the first war of the new millennium took place over the skies of New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania on the morning of September 11, 2001. The terrorists are, as President George W. Bush reminded Americans in the wake of the horrors, heirs to the fascists and totalitarians of the previous century, and their abiding hatred of Western values means that the United States and its allies face a long and grinding battle against them. The men who rammed the Twin Towers and the Pentagon with airliners were mere agents of a larger coalition, including several nations, many of whom are actively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. And while the president has made clear the determination of the United States to confront any state found to be supporting the networks of international terror, it was a promise made easier by the fact that none of the state sponsors of such acts as yet can counter the American threat with a nuclear trump card of their own. That situation will end, and soon.

The great conflict between the Western democracies and the Soviet totalitarians will never be seen again, at least not in the form it took between 1945 and 1991. But the end of the Cold War does not mean the end of "cold wars"--confrontations with ambitious, ideologically hostile, nuclear-armed nations in which the costs either of direct combat or of outright capitulation are both too high. Although history is ever an imperfect guide, the most dangerous war of the 20th century has much to tell us in the 21st century about fighting and prevailing in these new conflicts. The Western victory over the Soviet empire was neither an accident nor inevitable, and offers lessons that are worth heeding in what promises to be a period that promises to be no less perilous than the one that closed at the end of the 1980s. Those lessons are the subject of this book.

Edition details

• Publisher: Praeger
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0275966631
• ISBN 13: 9780275966638
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 280