Will a conflict on scale with a world war (and likely to be called World War III) occur sometime within the next hundred years? As always, the poll is public and please elaborate on your answers below. If possible, give us the participants.
It's hard to say. To this point, I'd say the existance of nuclear weapons has prevented another world war. But should some terrorist set off nukes within the US, a possibility that seems increasingly likely, the nukes might actually precipitate WW3. The US would certainly retaliate against someone, and this might set off a chain reaction.....
Hell, I think we're seeing the beginnings of war all over the world right now! Do y'all now of any nation in the world where there isn't some conflicts happening as we speak? Not necessarily armed conflict, but many of them are violent, armed conflicts ...both inside their borders as well as with their neighboring nations. I didn't vote because I don't think "World War" is the proper term to use for such widespread conflicts. But my guess is that in the next 25 years all of those existing conflicts, as well as other just forming, will be violent, armed conflicts. Chechyna; Crotia; Bosnia; Israel; Pakistan; India; all of the African nations; disputes/conflicts in Indonesia and southeast Asia; Mexico; Central America; South America; ........how many did I miss? Baron Max
I think WW3 will happen, but without any nukes involved. I think it will be on a very grand scale, battled with the most modern technology, but nukes will not be involved. The states are obviously way ahead of anyone else in that field, and every one else know it, so they wont try it and the states' political system wont allow them to use them. The major players in my opinion will be a US coalition with Britain, Middle East grouped with China and Russia, and possibly a third element to it with India and the rest of Europe neutral at first, and then coming in on one side or another. Again, nly my opinion, and i think in the next 25 years or so.
Don't kid yourself - put in a situation of "total war" the U.S, Russia and particularly China will press red buttons fastfastfast. Hell they nearly did over Cuba, over Korea, these are not even part of their homelands! India and Pakistan nearly did it arguing over a shithole. It will happen or it won't happen, anything is possible.
You incorrectly assume that: 1. Humans are logical beings. 2. There is no chance of accidental outbreak of WW. 3. The same loss applies to the leadership of a country and the general population. Also most posters forget about mininukes. It is quite possible that they would be used (tactical nukes) and not huge, whipe out everything nuclear weapons...Not to mention one big country can attack the other using agents and handdelivered mininukes, where the source of origin can be impossible to know after an explosion...
Looks like this ended up in the wrong forum. Since the future is hardly historical I'm moving this to World Events
Since facile speculation on the future is hardly a World Event, you could sublimate it further into Freak Thoughts. Pass the buck, Spidergoat. We here-and-now types don't have to take this future shit from those weirdos living in the past.
To have World War you need competing powers fighting eachother through satellite countries. We don't have that. Some countries have nukes but the US Empire is at war with the world's civilians, fighting anyone that rises up and resists US invasion and occupation. One superpower battling the world's civilians is not World War, it's the Empire attempting global domination. We aren't very good at it.
How politics works in Genji's world: One war against Iraq = World's Civilians. USA = Devil. Soviet Russia, Maoist China, and North Korea = Gods that have done nothing wrong. Supports an idealogy that has caused the deaths of 150-200 million people in the 20th century, yet has a problem with the USA which has never killed anything close to that. Anddd....anything Jewish = ROARKILL.
I say the most likely candidate for the start of a world war could be China's invasion of Taiwan or of India. Taiwan would almost assuredly provoke US response to China's aggression.
That sounds more like the Cold War to me. The World Wars consisted mostly of frontal confrontations between great powers (although various third countries got used as battlegrounds at various times). What you DO need is multiple competing powers with more-or-less global power projection capabilities. Since there is only one such power, speculation about a World War hinges on the emergence of more nations with extensive power projection capabilities. Moreover, since any countries that could conceivably get into such a position already have nukes, it's hard to imagine them engaging in anything resembling a World War. The options are: proxy wars, limited regional engagements or nuclear exchanges.
