We are living through the Second Cold War, yet what is it? Millions in East and West now fear a nuclear conflict, yet confrontation and panic continue to obscure understanding of the processes that might trigger a “hot” war. Fred Halliday presents a clearly written anatomy of these international tensions. He identifies the chief cause of cold war as the globalized contest between the USA and USSR and the arms race in which these states are engaged. He then explains the five main elements of the conflict: the relative decline in US nuclear strategic superiority since the 1960s; the new wave of Third World revolutions; the political stalemate of the post-capitalist states; the rise of the New Right in the USA; and the sharpened contradictions between the Western countries themselves.

The Making of the Second Cold War provides a careful, integrated political history of international developments since the 1960s. No other book on the subject has the same range, or attempts to knit together all the factors that have produced the contemporary world situation.