On the surface, the U.S.–Russia standoff over Ukraine meets nearly every criteria of a Cold War framework: great-power competition, nuclear deterrence, competitive alliance-building, and calculated risk management to avoid direct escalation. Ever since the 2014 Ukraine crisis erupted—beginning with Russia’s annexation of Crimea and eventually spiraling into full-scale, high-intensity warfare—analysts, Western media, and foreign-policy think tanks have repeatedly reached for a familiar historical analogy: the Cold War . In the early stages of the crisis, senior American officials frequently drew on this historical imagery. Then–Secretary of State John Kerry warned Moscow against sleepwalking into a Cold War–style confrontation, while President Barack Obama cautioned that Ukraine must not become a "Cold War chessboard" for direct superpower rivalry. This raises the defining geopolitical question of our era: Is the ongoing standoff between the United States (and its West...