According to a Swedish columnist, the world of today has become insecure to the point, when the risk of a devastating conflict due to mounting tensions between superpowers, has become overwhelming, surpassing the heights of the Cold War.
The recent cooling of relations between Russia and the West featuring hordes of expelled diplomats, mutual accusations and military build-ups has spurred many pundits into recalling outstanding conflicts of the past. While the Cold War remains by far the most-cited one, Mats Larsson of the Swedish Expressen newspaper has made a more uncommon comparison — the eve of WWI.
“Now it may often seem that the Cold War has returned. If so, it would be only good in many ways, as the current situation in the world is much more dangerous now,” Mats Larsson wrote.
According to Larsson, the conflict of ideologies on which the Cold War had been based was exhausted after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In the standoff between the US and the USSR, the both parties cherished hopes that their own political system would win the world over.
“As of today, the confrontation of major ideologies is no more: what is happening now rather resembles the world in 1910, not in 1960,” Larsson noted.
According to Larsson, the world has returned to the times when the actions of the countries primarily depend on their national interests and when the risk of being drawn into a major conflict due to geopolitical reasons is…
