The 16th-century Ottoman threat mirrors the Cold War confrontation

Evidence

Sometimes, however, it happens that an authentic contemporary document depicts a situation which suggests striking parallels with our own day. The comparison is often made between the confrontation of the free world and the Soviet Union at the present time, and the confrontation of Christendom and Islam, the Hapsburgs and the Ottomans, in the sixteenth century. Then as now, two different worlds, two different ideologies, two different ways of life stood face to face and contended for the mastery of the known world. There were times when it seemed that the centralized, disciplined power of the Turk was over­ whelming and that Christian Europe, weak, divided and irresolute, was doomed. To complete the parallel, the Turk was hampered by the presence of another, rival Islamic power on his Eastern flank—the Shi’ite Empire of Persia, which prevented him from concentrating all his forces in the West and thus gave Europe a respite from destruction. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 718

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘two-front Islamic rivalry giving Europe respite’ logic matches the Cold War’s Sino-Soviet split, a favorite structural parallel.
• SEED: Essay angle: the recurring two-adversaries-on-one-front structure that keeps weak coalitions alive across centuries.