“We do not seek a Cold War,” declared President Joe Biden in front of world leaders gathered at the United Nations on Sept. 21, 2022. He continued that America was not asking “any nation to choose between the United States or any other partner.”
But that’s likely not how everyone views the prospect of a new Cold War. Despite Biden’s protestations, foreign policy observers are increasingly framing the relationship between the U.S. on one side and Russia and China on the other as a “Cold War” in which countries are, in fact, being expected to choose sides. Moreover, in a March 2022 poll more than 6 in 10 American adults said the chance of a Cold War was higher than it was five years earlier.
