Elderly wife stuck in vehicle, creating conflict (4,3)
I believe the answer is:
cold war
'conflict' is the definition.
(cold war is a kind of conflict)
'elderly wife stuck in vehicle' is the wordplay.
'elderly' becomes 'old' (similar in meaning).
'wife' becomes 'w'.
'stuck in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'vehicle' becomes 'car' (car is a kind of vehicle).
'old'+'w'='oldw'
'oldw' put into 'car' is 'COLD WAR'.
'creating' is the link.
(Other definitions for cold war that I've seen before include "(Freezing?) state of hostility between nations" , "Intense hostility between nations without actually fighting" , "Low card (anag.)" , "major stand-off" , "State of hostility (rather than hostilities?)" .)