Cold War I ended in 1989, but the competitive logic that provoked the conflict was not transcended. The anticipated transformation in the conduct of international politics failed to be realised and instead cold war assumed new forms. This gave rise to the quarter century of the cold peace to 2014. The instruments that had fought the original cold war remained in place. On the Western side, this above all means NATO, which after some hesitation expanded from the 16 members when the Cold War ended to 32 by 2024. NATO is reinforced by the vast military–industrial and security–intelligence complex in the United States, as well as America's extensive network of bilateral security agreements spanning the globe, notably the security treaties with Japan and South Korea.

On the Russian side, the security apparatus inherited from the Soviet Union was reorganised but only partially reformed. The system as a whole remains largely in place. The Lubyanka building in central Moscow remains the headquarters of what is now called the Federal Security Service; the Foreign Intelligence Service inherited the buildings and networks of similarly profiled departments of the Soviet KGB, while military intelligence (the GRU) continues much as before. Destabilised by the Soviet collapse and the profound economic crisis of the 1990s, under Vladimir Putin's leadership the country regained confidence and coherence. The crunch issue between the two sides was NATO enlargement, but this was only symbolic of the larger failure to create an overarching security order encompassing the entire continent from Lisbon to Vladivostok. On assuming the presidency in 2000, Vladimir Putin sought to resolve the potential security dilemma by suggesting that Russia should join NATO. This was rejected by Washington, since it would threaten its undisputed leadership of the Atlantic alliance and change the character of the Political West in its entirety. More profoundly, if all the countries of Europe joined NATO, then against whom would the collective defence body defend? If all joined, then perhaps none needed to?