Personally I think we're closer to the edge now than during the cold war, then there was the inherent fear of MAD on both sides of the table, ensuring (as far as possible) that it never actually kicked off irrespective of the tensions.
These days we have nukes in the hands of potentially extremist nations, some of whom follow a religion which can (and has) be interpreted to preach that death in the "right manner" is rewarded in the afterlife.
We have a war in Europe involving a super power led by an apparent megalomaniac reportedly in ill health, with the corresponding super power across the atlantic as fractured and open to external influence as it has ever been, with the potential for it to be governed in the not too distant future by another megalomaniac who has stated that withdrawal from NATO is a distinct possibility.
Sat in the middle is a disenfranchised Europe, with a number of countries seeing the rise of the far right, largely unable (or unwilling) to do anything to prevent the war on its eastern edge despite the potential consequence to all should the Russians prevail.
As mentioned above, none of this is particularly new. The world has been at war since the first caveman clubbed his neighbour to death for looking at him in a funny way. What is new however is the weaponry which could effectively silence the planet in a cosmic second.
On the plus side United are still shit
