There is enough reason to worry that the new Cold War is in the offing as we witness the propensity for the pendulum of global politics to swing closer to another Cold War. Can Indonesia and like-minded countries hold the pendulum in the middle, away from Cold War mentality?

The Cold War was a state of geopolitical tension between two opposing sides that used proxies without engaging in a large-scale war. World citizens shared anxiety over a potential global nuclear war.

The Cold War was also about a contest of values and propositions over which system of governance could bring greater prosperity to the people and achieve global supremacy. Then, it was the Western Block under the leadership of the United States against the Eastern Block under the patron of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). 

No regions escaped the Cold War. E...

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