At any time in world history, has there ever been two nations involved in a "cold war" similar to the one between the U.S. and U.S.S.R., and notably including proxy wars?
My thanks to Lars Bosteen, who pointed out that Wikipedia defines a "cold war" as follows:
A cold war is a state of conflict between nations that does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates.
That article, while defining a cold war to include proxy wars waged by surrogates, includes references to other "cold wars" that are merely defined by the existence of tension between nations. In short, it appears journalists and analysts are co-opting the term despite insufficient conditions to warrant its use. It's only my opinion (and if you'll forgive a bit of exaggeration), but based on that use of the term, the U.S. is in a state of cold war with quite a number of nations and the Middle East has been in a state of perpetual cold war.
Another way of thinking about this: has there ever been a cold war, fought through means including proxies, that wasn't defined by the U.S., U.S.S.R., or their proxies?
Clarification: I apologize that the preceding statements weren't clear. The Wikipedia link provided by Lars Bosteen identify other "cold wars," but their definition appears to be more marketing than an appropriate use of the term as it's being used to simply identify high tension between nations. The definition provided by the link, that a cold war "does not involve direct military action but is pursued primarily through economic and political actions, propaganda, acts of espionage or proxy wars waged by surrogates." is generally satisfactory for me, but to make the question clear, I am requiring proxy wars. Are there any known conditions of cold war using that definition other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?