The roots of the new cold war w/ Gilbert Achcar

In 1999 in the wake of the Kosovo conflict Gilbert Achcar published
a book titled 'The New Cold War: The World After Kosovo'. At the
time, describing tensions between the United States, Russia and
China in terms of "a cold war" seemed to many to be outlandish
hyperbole, or very premature at best. Now, of course the use of the
term to describe the global situation is increasingly commonplace,
but if we are indeed in a cold war - the question arises - when did
it begin? Should it be dated in Russia's case to the 2008 Georgia
war, in China to the rise of Xi Jinping and the repression in Hong
Kong - or do we need to think back much further? In today's episode
Gilbert Achcar joins the show to discuss his new book, 'The New
Cold War: The US, Russia and China - From Kosovo to Ukraine', in
which he builds upon his earlier work to argue that the current
situation is rooted in events and key decisions made during the
1990s, including the devastating collapse of the Russian economy,
the failure to create a new security architecture in Europe after
the end of the cold war, and in increasing US-China tensions over
Taiwan and other security matters, which were obscured by the
deepening economic integration of the two states at the time. In
the following interview we discuss these topics, as well as why
Gilbert thinks its appropriate to describe Vladimir Putin's regime
as neofascist, why recognising NATO enlargement as being a vector
for Russian nationalism does not in any way justify the invasion of
Ukraine, and we also talked about what Gilbert thinks a more just
international order might look like.