Humanity Doesn’t Need a Cold War [Rev. on: Shen Zhihua. Economic Vortex: The Beginning of the Cold War Reinterpreted. Hongkong, 2022. 423 p.]

Abstract

This review focuses on the book by leading Chinese historian Shen Zhihua, Economic Vortex: The Beginning of the Cold War Reinterpreted (Hongkong, 2022). The central question that Shen wants to answer in his work is “Could the Cold War have been avoided?” The professor examines this question through a “new angle” — the economic relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union. Ultimately, Professor Shen concluded that the Cold War was an “accidental product” that could have been avoided. Further political and economic cooperation between U. S. and Soviet Union after World War II was in fact possible. The coexistence of two different ideologies and systems was also possible. The monograph consists of seven chapters. Shen analyzes in detail how the U. S. and the USSR gradually fell into an “economic vortex”, severing all economic relations between them. History — lessons for the future. The current situation in the world, the conflict between the two superpowers, China and U. S., has made the issue of the Cold War particularly relevant. Professor Shen believes that the outbreak of the Cold War in the middle of the last century is a “historical nuisance” for all mankind and contradicted the main course of the history of all mankind — the peaceful way of development. The PRC and the U. S. must not repeat the mistakes made by the American and Soviet leadership in the 20th century, which ended up dragging the entire world into a long and senseless conflict.