World War III, Is It Inevitable?

[ibd77]

Probably a good time to start discussing the potential of World War III as there seems to be a lot more media discussion & speculation via different & unrelated sources. Is it inevitable? Can it be avoided? Will it go nuclear?

We all know who are the emerging axis powers are. Will NATO hold strong or will it be fractured via internal politics and corruption via the axis powers?

Interesting times ahead.

 

[faible]

Probably a good time to start discussing the potential of World War III as there seems to be a lot more media discussion & speculation via different & unrelated sources. Is it inevitable? Can it be avoided? Will it go nuclear?

We all know who are the emerging axis powers are. Will NATO hold strong or will it be fractured via internal politics and corruption via the axis powers?

Interesting times ahead.

I don't think we'll see a large scale WW like we saw previously, the ability to simply erase countries from existence pretty much ensures it can't escalate beyond a certain point.

IMO it's more likely it'll be ongoing proxy wars like we've been seeing for a long time now.

 

[ibd77]

I don't think we'll see a large scale WW like we saw previously, the ability to simply erase countries from existence pretty much ensures it can't escalate beyond a certain point.

IMO it's more likely it'll be ongoing proxy wars like we've been seeing for a long time now.

At some point there will have to be an incursion between superpowers such as China's move on Taiwan with the US preparedness to defend Taiwan.

Then you have the proposal of Russia forming a land bridge to Kaliningrad via Belarus, Poland & Lithuania.

Who knows where the middle-east ends up if Iran escalates further.

It seems like a tactic to stretch the west's resources to find a weaknesses and take advantage of it.

 

[faible]

At some point there will have to be an incursion between superpowers such as China's move on Taiwan with the US preparedness to defend Taiwan.

Then you have the proposal of Russia forming a land bridge to Kaliningrad via Belarus, Poland & Lithuania.

Who knows where the middle-east ends up if Iran escalates further.

It seems like a tactic to stretch the west's resources to find a weaknesses and take advantage of it.

I don't think China invading Taiwan or Russia forming a land bridge by invading and annexing Belarus, Poland and Lithuania are realistic.

China is more likely (IMO) to simply strangle Taiwan in some form or other - economically, blockading shipping etc... - than that are to attempt land troops on the island via sea or air.

Russia can't even annex Ukraine.

Iran are seemingly happy to keep poking around the edges by feeding arms to militant groups that suit their purposes, but escalating that to a full-blown conflict with the US is a big step up.

The west is doing a pretty great job of shooting itself in the foot by electing horrendous governments, there's no real need for any of the above to escalate to a global conflict that would see the west unite against them.

 

[Baldur]

At some point there will have to be an incursion between superpowers such as China's move on Taiwan with the US preparedness to defend Taiwan.

Then you have the proposal of Russia forming a land bridge to Kaliningrad via Belarus, Poland & Lithuania.

Who knows where the middle-east ends up if Iran escalates further.

It seems like a tactic to stretch the west's resources to find a weaknesses and take advantage of it.

Ask yourself if its rational for China's leaders to cause the death of China to unite China with Taiwan, the same applies to Kaliningrad and Russia.

Conflict between great powers is inevitable, they have opposing interests & power. But direct conflict as opposed to backing lesser powers is less certain and even with direct conflict, the use of nukes is off the table.

Let us say China tries to take Taiwan, the USA opposes this, naval conflict between them is almost certain. Either of them attacking the others mainland with airpower, not so much. Invasion of either power’s mainland by the other powers ground forces, not going to happen. Without a threat to the continuing survival of the state, nukes are off the table. China is not going to use nukes to take it & the USA is not going to use nukes to stop them.

Its miscalculation that is the big threat, something that one power sees as a direct threat that its survival, that the other powers does not see in this manner.

Now lesser but still nuke armed states nuking each other is more likely, say India and Pakistan. The most likely use of nukes in my opinion is Iran believing they need nukes to ensure their survival and Israel believing they must stop this to ensure their survival.

 

[Gethelred]

No.