Review Essay: Cold War — An Aberration or the Normality of Contemporary International Politics?

Abstract

This review focuses primarily on some central premises in Fred Halliday's book The Making of the Second Cold War. Halliday's viewthat the First and Second Cold Wars are basically similar is questioned. Furthermore, it is pointed out that whereas Halliday presents a long list of factors or causes of Cold War II, he fails to specify their relative importance and interrelationships. Finally, an underlying assumption in Halliday's book appears to be that Detente was some kind of self-evident and normal situation, whereas the Second Cold War is an aberration in need of explanation. In contrast to this perspective, the reviewer argues that cold war policies by U.S. governments are the normal situation. What actually needs explana tion is the the period of Dentente. However, Halliday's book is considered to be a useful summary of im portant developments in post-war international politicis.