New Cold Wars

Three decades after the end of the Cold War, the United States finds itself in a volatile rivalry against the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s Russia—in a world far more complex and dangerous than that of a half century ago. New Cold Wars—the latest from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon, David E. Sanger—is a fast-paced account of America’s plunge into simultaneous confrontations against two very different adversaries. For years, the United States was confident that the newly-democratic Russia and increasingly wealthy China could be lured into a Western-led order that promised prosperity and relative peace—so long as they agreed to Washington’s terms. By the time America emerged from the age of terrorism, it was clear that this had been a fantasy. Now, the three powers are engaged in a high-stakes struggle for military, economic, political, and technological supremacy—with nations around the world pressured to take sides. Yet all three are discovering that they are maneuvering for influence in a far messier world than imagined. Based on a remarkable array of interviews with top officials from five administrations, U.S. intelligence agencies, foreign governments, and tech companies on the front lines, Sanger unfolds a riveting narrative spun around the era’s critical questions: Will the mistakes Putin made in his invasion of Ukraine prove his undoing and will he reach for his nuclear arsenal—or will the West’s famously short attention span signal Kyiv’s doom? Will Xi invade Taiwan? Will both men deepen their partnership to undercut America’s dominance? And can a politically dysfunctional America still lead the world? Taking readers from the battlefields of Ukraine—where trench warfare and cyberwarfare are interwoven—to the Taiwan headquarters where the world’s most advanced computer chips are produced, to tense debates in the White House Situation Room, New Cold Wars is a remarkable first draft history chronicling America’s return to superpower conflict, the choices that lie ahead, and what is at stake for the United States and the world.