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Depending on your definition of a World War...we might have already had WW3
The 7 years War and Napoleonic Wars might count as World Wars as well as a few others. They involved multiple beligerants and spanned the globe.
World War 1 was originally called "The War to End all Wars" and didn't get renamed until around the time of WW2. However, one could argue that WW2 was the continuation of WW1 as one could argue the Treaty of Versailles helped to create the ideals and goals of the Nazi Party. That's a whole other debate right there though as it's a bit complicated.
Also..one could suggest the global war on terror is a World War.
Now, if you are referring to WW3 in the sense of a atomic, devastating war....well then who knows about that
I absolutely believe we will have a WW3, it will not involve nuclear weapons, and most likely will be started by China to distract their population, and seize resources.
China will get Russia on their side, and a few other smaller countries, and it will last less then a year.
I dont think the Russia-Ukraine conflict will do it but WWIII is coming....sooner or later, it's coming and, unlike WWI and WWII, both sides will lose.
I doubt it.
The way war is conducted is entirely different now.
Technology is such that rapid assured mutual destruction is always on the table.
I think this lends more towards subversive support of smaller regional wars with puppeteers in the background.
I also think we are more at a point where global domination is more achieved through financial avenues vs military power.
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I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth — rocks!
Albert Einstein., in an interview with Alfred Werner, Liberal Judaism 16 (April-May 1949), 12. Einstein Archive 30-1104, as sourced in The New Quotable Einstein by Alice Calaprice (2005), p. 173.
There might be one day. Currently we still have people around who either lived through the last one, or whose close relatives did. Eventually the lessons learned from that will start to fade as generations become less aware of it, and who knows, with the right set of circumstances... the real problem will come when resources properly start to become scarce, then we'll see humanity's true nature come out. I don't want to be around when that day happens, billions of people fighting over scraps...
What do you think? If Russia invades Ukraine, will the US possibly invade Russia? I think that if the WWIII does happen, the UK, France, Canada, China, etc will get involved.
Honestly I don't even think the US will invade China if the latter invades Japan,one of its strongest ally.
Could there be a third world war? Well, yeah. If two others have already happened, we know for a fact another could happen. Will it? Hopefully not.
You'd need to look to the past to really understand how wars of that scale go about happening.
WWI was the result of Germany's quest for nationalism and world power. Germany was unified and became it's own nation around the 1880s I believe, giver or take a decade or two. They had made a pact with Russia (which had actually been broken by the time WWI had gotten started) and made several other enemies by defeating them in war to prove their military strength. They also industrialized very quickly, making a world war possible for them. Of course, they were defeated. They did defeat Russia, and in Russia's shame of their loss opened up Lenin's opportunity to start his revolution. By the time the US had gotten involved, Germany was tired.
Upon losing the war, the League of Nations sought to make Germany as weak as possible with a number of harsh restrictions, one of which being Germany's responsibility to pay for the damage caused in Europe. Germany obviously couldn't afford this after fighting a world war. Side note: other European nations had to repay the US for the weapons they had bought to fight Germany. So Germany needs to pay off a debt, and they have no money. So what do they do? They get a loan from the closest thing to a powerful European nation they can find: The United States. So if you haven't already figured out the issue, Germany is paying the rest of Western Europe with American money, and Western Europe is paying America with America's money. Thus, this cycle of the same money caused the massive economic collapse known as the Great Depression (there were other factors of course, but this is a big one).
The depression hit Germany the hardest. With nationalism left over from WWI still waiting to be reawakened, and war veterans rampant with patriotism, the window of opportunity emerged for a great and powerful leader to rise. The leader was Adolf Hitler. He used nationalism and anti-semitism, which was already present in Germany, to gain support, took over, revitalized the economy, built a military, and started the largest conflict in human history.
Germany was of course over powered by the Soviets and the Americans, leading both nations to become massive super powers and polar opposites, despite their alliance. This differences between the two caused the Cold War, which I see as being a WWIII in of itself.
I don't really see any similar factors in any country right now. Nationalism was key for the first two World Wars. Ukraine doesn't quite have the same push for it as Germany had. Obviously, Ukraine's sovereignty is important to many Ukrainians, but Putins desire to feel like a Soviet leader is just as strong, and he needs the Ukraine to have the feeling. But I see no logical reason for the tensions between Russia and Ukraine to result in any kind of world wide conflict or another Cold War.
I also think it's note worthy that we are in fact living in the most peaceful era of recorded human history.
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Will There Be A WWIII?
