The scenario began two years ago in Ukraine, where Viktor Yanukovych and Viktor Yushchenko engaged in a duel of epic proportions, ending unexpectedly with Russia annexing Crimea.

The Balts and Poles had reason to be frightened, which is why NATO will send its battalions to Poland and the Baltic countries in line with decisions made at the summit in Warsaw.

However, their intention is not to stop an impending war, but to send two messages. The first is that NATO stands by their member states, the other is that Russia has become an enemy once again.

Russia also played an important role in this case. Moscow would rather see a Europe without NATO and the EU, so it could assert its influence better, but even with the recent developments in Europe, this is not likely to happen.

Despite how Russian president Vladimir Putin criticises NATO, he knows that the alliance can be very useful to him. No politician in history has found a better way to get more support and to achieve national unity than by finding an external enemy.

Russia and NATO are currently playing a sort of blame game, though NATO is still not unified about its opinion on Moscow.

This path has never led to a solution, so it is clear that no one is really looking for one. Officials rather wonder whether a new Cold War is emerging. Recent developments prove that this scenario is not unlikely, the paper concludes in Enemies Back in Their Place.