The New Cold War – between Russia and the U.S. or between China and the U.S. or between Europe and Russia or whichever large-economy country is angry at another large-economy country (or group) – grabs most headlines in most news outlets. Yet below those ongoing tensions, the vast majority of the world’s countries must work their way toward getting what they need in trade, assistance, development and investments from a few large, antagonistic countries. These smaller countries are involved in a New New Cold War – the effort to survive and thrive in the geo-economics game while surrounded by geopolitical tensions; to balance influence among all countries of the world while trying to resolve fundamental conceptual differences; to lessen and balance the international influence of power-center countries while creating more equitable distributions of influence among all nations; and to make room for different forms of governments and different kinds of economies in the corridors of international organizations, among other objectives of this most unusual form of conflict, competition and influence.
As part of this new kind of conflict, several realities have emerged: first, leaders of the less-developed economies have separated security from economic growth in diplomatic objectives; second, autonomy and sovereignty have become front-burner issues among countries with smaller economies; third, geo-economics has become the first point of contact in any effort to enhance diplomatic relations; and fourth, as developed economies seek more natural resources for their turn to alternative energy products and services, the countries with those natural resources will become more assertive. Those smaller economies do not want the world to fall into another Cold War because they do not want to have to choose sides and because they know that they will suffer most from another international war, cold or hot. The New New Cold War will determine the shape of international relations in the future.