What are the steps towards officially recognizing a Cold War?

Question

The Guardian argues about so called "Cold War 2.0":

Warnings of a return to cold war politics have been a staple of European debate for three years, but in recent weeks many western diplomats, politicians and analysts have come to believe the spring has indeed been released. Russia is being reassessed across western capitals. The talk is no longer of transition to a liberal democracy, but regression.

The post-cold war era is over, and a new era has begun. Cold war 2.0, different in character, but potentially as menacing and founded not just on competing interests but competing values.

I am wondering if a new Cold War can be officially declared by one or more countries or an organization such as NATO. What are the steps towards this?

Question: What are the steps towards officially recognizing a Cold War?

Side note: While it was not a declared war, it was recognized as an official conflict through such things as the Cold War Recognition Certificates awarded by the US Department of Defense to armed forces personnel and civilians who served during the Cold War Era.

Answer 1

A Cold War is not a declared war. Possibly not even an undeclared war. It is not really a term in customary international law. So there are two things required:

• Somebody coins a memorable phrase and publicizes it. In the case of the "first" Cold War, this was George Orwell, the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm. It remains to be seen if people like Legvold, Guterrez, or Lucas will have the same impact on public imagination.
• Somebody official feels the need make a definition, e.g. for purposes of a campaign medal, and uses the term from the first bullet point.

Answer 2

A generic cold war typically is a state where two nations are preparing for a potential future conflict with each other but do not yet have a Causa belli (lit. Case for War) and thus, while diplomatically hostile, are in a perpetual state of waiting for the other to attack first or provide a case for a more legitimate war so they can politically curry favor with other powers. These are typically characterized by economical, political, propaganda, and espionage actions between the "belligerent" nations as well as proxy wars between client states (rare outside of the Cold War) but no actual hostilities between the nations them selves. Basically, a state of diplomacy where both nations are ready to fight a war and expect the other side to be the aggressor.

In addition to current USA/EU vs. Russia/China Cold War 2: Electric Boogaloo other identified extant cold wars include:

The Middle East tensions, characterized as regional tensions brought on by cold war tensions between Saudia Arabia and Iran. Mostly stems from religious sects, but the Cold War also played a role in this. Most actions here tend to have proxy wars. Officially, no nuclear actors, isn't that right, Israel? (Israel officially states it is not a nuclear power, but it's the worst kept secret that it is a nuclear power.).

The Pakistan-India Cold war, over borders drawn after both states left the British Empire. Extant since 1947. Both are nuclear powers.

The China-India Cold War. Also Nuclear powers.

The South-North Korea Cold War: The only identified cold war with any formal documentation, as a state of war still exists between North and South Korea from the Korean war. Both state actors have a cease fire treaty but no formal declaration of peace, making this a cold war that directly resulted from a shooting war between the belligerents. Also a cold war spin-off of The Cold War.

Answer 3

Cold war, like World war 1 and 2 is not a term for a specific (i.e., legally framed) conflict, but rather a collective name for a period, which included many conflicts, somehow related to the confrontation between the USSR and the United States. Churchill's Iron curtain speech is often cited as the beginning (or even as a declaration) of the Cold War, but it is again a cultural reference - Churchill (who at the time didn't officially represent any country or alliance) was merely providing his analysis of the already existing situation. Thus, it remains a cultural and historical label, like Roaring 20s.

Answer 4

Here's a partial de facto official answer, rather than a formal official answer. This seems allowable, since some nations prefer not to formally declare certain wars.

Declaration by wallet. Comparative international military/espionage/propaganda budgets devoted to cold war activities seem like a useful metric. Note that such a metric is worthless for evaluating any non-economic merits of such a war.

Provided stalemate is optimal, or nobody's trying too hard to actually win, or does accidentally win, this has the consequence of making mutualistic symbionts of those in the war's various national supply chains not directly harmed by it. Symbionts may be oblivious, or self-aware like Basil Zaharoff.