“After World War II, leaders of both East and West had divided the world into opposing camps, and both sides accused the other of having designs on the world.”

For forty-three years, although no war between the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union was ever officially declared, the leaders of the democratic West and the Communist East faced off against each other in what is known as the Cold War. The war was not considered “hot” because neither superpower directly attacked the other. Nevertheless, despite attempts to negotiate during periods of peaceful coexistence and détente, these two nations fought overt and covert battles to expand their influence across the globe.

Cold War scholars have devised two conflicting theories to explain what motivated the superpowers to act as they did during the Cold War. One group of scholars argues that...