The term Cold War was first used in the United States by Presidential Adviser Bernard Baruch in his 1947 speech in Columbia, Maryland.
The Cold War is defined as the indirect political, ideological and military confrontation that brought together the Soviet Union and the United States in the post-World War II era until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This stage was characterized by the coldness of the two countries’ relations, and they did not have huge commercial or economic relations, cultural, strategic, economic and political competition, as well as competition for spheres of influence around the world, at a time when many proxy wars broke out such as the Congo War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War, in addition to the 1961 Cuban missile crisis. .
With the continuous rise of China during the past two decades - whether economically, technologically, and militarily - and its threat to American leadership, with which Washington has controlled the world order since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, some see the inevitability of a clash between the hegemonic power and the rising power.
The American withdrawal from the Middle East will give Washington the ability to focus on the most important strategic competition with China, as East Asia is the main theater of competition in the 21st century.
The United States wants to maintain its position as the largest military and economic power in the world, which is what prompts some to push for the adoption of zero-sum equations in its relationship with China, which competes with the United States economically and militarily.
In a rare move, President Joe Biden announced a few days ago that his country plans to share nuclear-powered submarine technology with Australia as part of a new trilateral defense partnership that also includes the United Kingdom.
This announcement came before another four-way meeting in the White House with the leaders of Japan, India and Australia, with one purpose: to confront the rise of China, which began to take a military turn in recent months.
Contrary to what observers see that the US withdrawal from Afghanistan has significantly undermined international confidence in Washington as the leader of the liberal free world, commentators in Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and other China's neighbors considered the withdrawal from Afghanistan a good opportunity to rearrange Washington's priorities to confront the rise and ambitions Chinese rather than confined to the issue of counter-terrorism.
This school believes that the US withdrawal from the Middle East will give Washington the ability to focus on the most important strategic competition with China, as East Asia is the main theater of competition in the 21st century.
Washington did not waste much time, as the completion of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan coincided with the participation of 25,000 marines and other members of the US Navy in maneuvers to simulate the seizure and control of islands in the western Pacific Ocean.
These exercises are one of the largest military exercises in which dozens of American ships and submarines have participated in decades.
The military exercises - which were conducted with Japanese, British and Australian forces - showed the Pentagon's tendency to focus on confronting Chinese ambitions in the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and the exercises also represented a message of American reassurance to its allies around the world.
These developments come as Biden attempts to refocus US national security and economic policy on the threat posed by China.
In recent years, tension has escalated over territorial disputes in the South China Sea - a major shipping lane for oil and natural gas resources - as Beijing has built military sites on several small reclaimed islands, and in addition to this, China does not stop carrying out cyber attacks against American interests and institutions, Its military fleets also stalk the fishing vessels of its neighboring countries in the South China Sea, such as the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Toughness towards relations with China is one of the rare issues that politicians of the two major parties in the United States agree on, especially since President Xi Jinping came to power, as Beijing has been working to develop technologically advanced military capabilities in various fields.
The approach of Democratic President Joe Biden did not differ from that of his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, in this context, and since his first week in office, there have been rapid signals and various steps from the Biden administration pushing towards hard-line policies that appear on the horizon between Washington's expected relations with Beijing.
During his confirmation session in the Senate, Secretary of State Tony Blinken stressed that China poses the greatest challenge to the United States, while Defense Secretary General Lloyd Austin also described China as "an increasing danger, and that addressing it will be one of the most prominent directions of the Pentagon's activities in the coming years." National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview with the Institute of Peace in Washington that "the Chinese believe that their model is more successful than the American model, and this is what they are promoting around the world."
From here, some voices came out to confirm that we are in the process of a new cold war, but it is not like the Soviet-American Cold War, because the two countries’ economies are very complexly interconnected. China is not the closed Soviet Union, and America cannot adopt a policy of containing China by restricting it easily.
Biden agrees with former President Donald Trump's vision of holding China accountable for its role in the spread of the Corona virus, but unlike Trump, Biden believes in the need to strengthen a multilateral coalition of like-minded allies to confront what he sees as Chinese threats and unfair practices.
From here, the United States and its allies in the Indian and Pacific regions are heading for a new cold war that fits the conditions and nature of the 21st century, a cold war with which the confrontation between the two countries in the field of international trade and access to natural resources can reach a conflict over the future of technology, leading to geostrategic competition, especially in Southeast Asia.