‘A Very Internecine Policy’: Anglo-Russian Cold Wars before the Cold War

Whether or not each epoch is equal to God, as Leopold von Ranke once suggested, certainly each new generation of historians creates a new version of the past, one that suits its needs or tastes or that, at any rate, suggests itself as a plausible reconstruction of past occurrences. This is also relevant for the study of the post-1945 East-West conflict. The Cold War is generally seen as the key organising principle of the second half of the short twentieth century. So ingrained, indeed, is this view in the intellectual habits of today’s political leaders and commentators — and not a few scholars, too — that they tend to cast back wistful glances at the ‘familiar certainties of the Cold War and its alliances.’