Connor Norton - Fear and Confidence in the Face of Russian War Games

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/fear-and-confidence-in-the-face-of-russian-war-games/2017/09/10/18e4e7b6-931a-11e7-8482-8dc9a7af29f9_story.html?utm_term=.64b907deb80f

This Thursday Russia will officially begin conducting war games in Belarus, simulating the event of an uprising in the area sponsored by outside governments. Although Russia has claimed there will only be approximately 12,700 troops deployed during the exercise (few enough that NATO isn't required to officially observe), Western observers claim military action had already begun as of last week with troop counts possibly nearing 100,000 by the time the war games are in full swing. Many nations in the area as well as members of NATO are concerned as they see this as a show of power and preparation for conflict with NATO in the near future, with 3 members of the organization all bordering the region where the war games are being held. There have also been symbolic moves by Russia hinting towards such conflict, an example being the reinstating of the 1st Guards Tank Army, a soviet-era division whose purpose was to break through NATO defenses in case of war before its disbanding in 1998. This article was written in Latvia, a NATO member and country bordering Russia, so the author probably had close experience to the tension in the region.

The obvious connection between this news and U.S. history is that is a blatant continuation of hostilities that date back to the Cold War; remarked upon by many of said Western observers, this is a show of power by Communist Russia towards an organization dating back to the nuclear threat of the Cold War with close ties to the United States as America continues to posture for other Communist nations such as North Korea. However, can we really draw conclusions as to how this will end if modern historians cannot readily distinguish between this conflict and the Cold War I am comparing it to? Is this a new conflict based off of pre-existing tension or is it simply are prolonging and re-energizing of the original conflict before it could even come to a conclusion?