World war 3 looks like it’s getting closer every single day, one stray missile or misplaced airstrike could cause the next world war to start in an instant. Statistically speaking the last couple of decades have been some of the most peaceful and prosperous times in human history with the global economy booming and big nations for the most part staying out of a war with each other and avoiding large-scale global conflicts.
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has caused international tensions to stir up like never before, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the cold war and just recently Russia threatening the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine has the world on edge, to say the least. Although NATO, arguably the most successful military alliance in the world, has pretty much single-handedly caused decades of peace the military alliance relies upon all of its allies to protect each other in the event of attack so attacking even one of the countries in NATO would instantly cause world war 3. What scares me the most about the coming world war is how it would be fought, nuclear weapons would likely cause the deaths of millions of people, and no one would be safe. I think Albert Einstein’s thoughts on the matter probably make the most sense. “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
Although Ukraine has been getting a lot of attention Taiwan has also been a topic of discussion in recent weeks with China similar to Russia saying they don’t see the neighbouring country of Taiwan as a sovereign country which could prompt an invasion by China. President Joe Biden has also stated that if an invasion does happen the US would help defend the country with direct military action. Some claim that Ukraine is just a small border conflict which won’t go any farther while others claim it will be looked at as the start of the next world war. Something to consider when looking at war is also the very unstable political climate that exists not only in the US but all around the world due to the effects of social media. The advent of instant communication with everyone across the globe is something that wasn’t present in world war 2 but will definitely impact future wars as we have seen. It is already impacting the war in Ukraine because the Russian government has been unable to completely censor the internet and their pro-war rhetoric hasn’t been very successful with all of the Russian people, massive protests are still going on to this day in Russia with people protesting the war and just recently the call to draft people into the military has people leaving the country in flocks as quickly as they can and violence against the government is at an all-time high.
Economics is also a huge factor in global tensions at the moment, mainly to do with energy and semiconductor chips. Russia has long been supplying large portions of Europe including big countries like Germany and the UK with large amounts of oil and now that huge economic sanctions have been cast against Russia it puts Europe in a difficult moral position as they don’t know whether to keep buying from an enemy country or to let their population suffer from an energy crisis. Semiconductor shortages have also been going on for years now due to the slowing supply chain from COVID and now due to the war, Taiwan being a main semiconductor manufacturer for the US puts us in a bad position if China ever does try to invade Taiwan as we could be cut off from cutting edge chips.
Even simple things like grain and wheat have been going through supply chain issues showing us just how fragile this super interconnected world economy really is and how badly it could affect all of us if world war 3 came around. The damage that such a war could do is definitely in the extinction of humanity category and the war in Ukraine alone has already displaced 14 million people and killed over 30,000 and although the world has been helping a lot by giving Ukraine billions of dollars in aid the conflict is still raging on and Russia is making solid advances. Nuclear proliferation has been a hot diplomatic debate for many decades now and major strides have been taken to limit the use and manufacturing of atomic weapons. Still, all it takes is one person to think they have no other option but to resort to the worst weapon ever known to mankind to tear the entire world apart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7hOpT0lPGI
I strongly recommend this ted talk by Brain Toon. He talks very in-depth about the consequences of nuclear war and something he said really hit home for me. “We’re just one misunderstanding, one mistake, or one fanatic politician away from a nuclear conflict”.
Hi Myuren, I think it is great that someone is covering a sensitive topic like this. I also think that tension between nations is rising, especially because of the Russia-Ukraine situation. As you said, Russia has made threats about nuclear warfare, which nobody wants. I think that if Russia does launch a nuclear missile, they will become public enemy #1 and most countries will turn on them to try to take them down. Something I didn’t know about was the conflict between Taiwan and China. While I think that the U.S. being willing to help Taiwan is a good thing, I’m afraid that if we ally with Taiwan, other countries might ally with china, and that may be the start of WW3. Alliances were also one of the main reasons for WWI. I think your point about the economy is true, our interconnected society is so fragile that even a decrease in the supply of oil threw everybody into chaos because of gas prices. Whatever the case, it would be preferable if a World War didn’t happen so I don’t have the risk of getting drafted anytime soon.