The Future

In the preface to his The Cold War: A History, John Lewis Gaddis writes "No one today worries about a new global war, or a total triumph of dictators, or the prospect that civilization itself might end. That was not the case when the Cold War began" (xi). I strongly believe that there will not be a new global war, etc., but I'm not sure that I agree that no one believes the opposite.
In fact, I think much of our current foreign policy is based on the radical idea that we are threatened with global war or that terrorism threatens "civilization," however that concept is construed. Gaddis wrote this preface in 2005--is it still accurate?