In a broad sense, cold war thinking refers to a way of thinking in dealing with relations between countries and resolving international disputes formed in the process of confrontation between two major groups and hegemony between two superpowers during the Cold War.

The cold war mentality is based on the bourgeois narrow concept of national sovereignty and interests and a set of western international relations theories formed on this basis, with the aim of containing and squeezing socialist countries.

In the confrontation and struggle between socialist countries and capitalist countries, socialist countries naturally agree with these concepts and ways of thinking, thus making the Cold War mentality a kind of consciousness recognized by both sides.

In a word, this generalized cold war mentality is the product of the specific historical period of the Cold War and the reflection of the international reality in people's minds at that time.

Opponent thinking, the main direction of American foreign strategy during the Cold War was the Soviet Union. After the end of the Cold War, the United States lost its opponent in the world, felt at a loss about its own behavior, and was eager to establish new enemies.