Do You Think There Will Be a WWIII?

[Cast No Shadow]

Obviously, no one (here) wants there to be, but do you think we'll ever have a 3rd World War?

If so, how do you think it'll go down?

Another question - although this is historical, rather than speculative, if such a thing *were* to happen, would all the allies for each country remain the same?

 

[Kean]

There could be one, theoretically. But I also think the world, in the aftermath of WWII, has gone to pains to ensure there is not another World War. The establishment of the League of Nations, and later the UN, as well as the EU were measures taken specifcally to curtail the possibility of a third world wide military engagement.

The reasons behind WWI and WWII are significantly different and I don't know if we could reasonably suggest another situation that could lead to world wide warfare. I think the fact that the Cold War remained cold, says a lot about the desire of political leaders to avoid another war. I think that was the closest we came to it, in recent times.

There is talk of the world being more vulnerable to a a world war now, with the economic downfall. And that is true, but this remains a recession, not a depression. In my opinion, it would take the world getting significantly bleaker for there to be a sincere threat of a third WW. Even then, I'm not convinced it could happen.

 

[Ripper666]

That's a difficult question. Even if I really hope there won't be a 3td world-war, I guess that it is in the nature of the humans to fight for territory, resources, rights or power. And after a while, when they forgot about world war 1 and 2, there could arise a world war 3. And it would end cruel... Look at the history. There was world war 1 and nobody wanted a second one. But it came.

 

[WWGD]

It's inevitable. And it will ultimately be driven by economic and natural resource competition.

There are more and more countries that are developing nuclear and biochemical weapons, and a lot of them are unstable. Just because two superpowers once understood mutually assured destruction does not mean that it will never happen. Tensions are always high throughout the world and reasons for war are always present. It really only takes a group of people to take an extreme action and it will blow up (wow, no pun intended... really!) from there.

 

[zobothehobo]

I think there will be a WWIII. I mean, it's highly unlikely that there will never be a full on global conflict like that forever. I don't think it will be happening any time soon. I think the trend set by last year, and what I think will continue to happen in the coming years is revolution. I think that revolution will kind of plug the potential for a world war. But I think it will happen again, eventually.

 

[Ianigsy]

I think it's entirely possible that we're in the middle of it- we just haven't decided to name it yet. Nation states are less important than they were fifty years ago, but rather than two big alliances heading off against each other, or democracies against fascism, or capitalism against communism, we have Western liberal democracy against militant Islam.

What's really changed in the last twenty years is that we've gone from superpower rivalry to superpower co-operation. China provides us with consumer goods and Russia sells us energy- in return Europe and the US invest in their developing capitalist economies. A lot depends on the kind of state China becomes when it takes over as the main world economy, but even then its main rivals will also be its best markets.

 

[white avenger]

If there isn't, or at least some kind of global disaster, there are a whole lot of survivalists who I honestly think are going to be downright disappointed.

But, seriously, there probably will be, once the memories of the horrors of the previous two fade enough to be ignored. I don't really think that it will be within what's left of my lifetime, but, yeah, there will be another "big one." Mankind seems destined to make the same mistakes, over and over again.

 

[Spikefan31]

The idea of a WWIII is terrifying, just knowing that there are so many nuclear and biochemical weapons out there. The whole world would be destroyed. 🙁 Do I think it will happen? Possibly. Probably. But I sincerely hope not.

Australia would probably side with the US again. We're a total kiss ass. Although, in recent years I think we've been trying to build a better relationship with Asia, it being closer and all. So...I'm not sure about the ally thing.

 

[Taake]

Another question - although this is historical, rather than speculative, if such a thing *were* to happen, would all the allies for each country remain the same?

Seems very unlikely, looking through history one can see clearly that alliances change constantly with times, cultural shifts, political/economic/other agenda. We'll never be immune to that I'm afraid, nor do I believe we're safe from another WW3, when it will come and what it'll be about is a tricky question but I do think the emergence of one is inevitable.

 

[wickedtiger86]

I think . . . that life is very long.

Not just my life, but the life of the human race. If it goes on long enough, then who's to say what will happen, 1,000 years from now?

However, I don't think that this is something that is going to come up in the near future. It seems to me that most countries are trying to remain peaceable, if and when they can, and that's a really good thing.

 

[Living Dead Boy]

The way the world is going......I wouldn't be surprised. I honestly don't even want to think about it.

 

[November]

I dont really pay much attention to world wide politics. But when ever I imagine that there will be another world war, I figure one of the more volatile countries will just decide to let off massive bombs and wipe out as much as they can. I wouldnt be surprised if the next world war left the world in a very dismal state, perhaps even wiping out whole cultures. People are crazy.