Was there a third World War?

Answer 1

A third world war is a certainty. The question is when. The world's resources can only sustain a number of us. To date there are already 6.6 billion of us, consuming more food than we can produce. The earth's climatic change (also attributed by the growing population) will further reduce the ability to regenrate food. Even now, prices have increased at unprecendented rates. Shortages are happening all around the world. Yes, it is a certainty. Let pray it is not in our life time.........


Alternate Answer:

A third world war is really not a certainty as the weapons used to engage in wars now are so incredibly destructive that any conflict involving major world powers would almost certainly destroy all interested parties, plus a few that never had anything to do with the conflict.

This is known as MAD or Mutually Assured Destruction and it's the paradigm that prevented the Cold War from becoming a hot war for over 50 years.

The Soviets and the United States (and all allies) knew that any direct conflict between the two nations would be likely to escalate and that victory over one another wasn't truly a viable option because as soon as one of the two powers felt sufficiently backed into a corner, the nuclear weapons would come out. In this way, there couldn't be a winner but everyone could lose.

Mutually Assured Destruction - regardless of who won or lost, the result would be the same. Both empires would be destroyed.

This was the case when nuclear weapons were first discovered and it remains the case now.

Because of this, it's unlikely that any major powers would ever truly engage in a zero-sum conflict again.

Answer 2

As long as rational, non-fanatical countries have nuclear weapons there will never be a large scale world war involving these nuclear armed states. So far the countries that have nuclear weapons do not want mutually assured destruction for their own country and for the world itself, nuclear weapons act as a deterrent for world wars due to the fear of the end of life on this planet. Imagine if the US, Russia, or China were about to be defeated in war and taken over. What would stop these countries from launching their nukes to take out the rest of the planet along with themselves. However I do think that the prevention of allowing fanatical governments and leaders in having nuclear weapons is the best option for avoiding large scale destruction and war. Iran and N. Korea are prime examples of countries pursuing nuclear arms right now and this is not good for the rest of the world. These two countries have nothing to lose and you can't trust someone when they act like they have nothing to lose. N. Korea has some attention issues stemming from a wacky adorable-looking lunatic for a leader and Iran has already stated that they wanted to wipe Israel off the map, you also can't trust anyone who looks forward to death and the afterlife and is convinced that he will be rewarded in the afterlife by killing non-believers. Iran's leader also has a screw loose and likes the international attention as well. As much as the rest of the world likes to criticize the US and its foreign policy, somebody has to keep tabs on the unstable countries around the world. A world without America would be drastically different then it is now, not to mention the medical/technological advances the US has created for the world, but without the US "policing the world" I honestly think the world would be far worse and unstable then it is today.

Answer 3

There is always the possibility. Look at the number of wars going on right now.

Answer 4

Nobody really knows for sure. Let's just hope that it doesn't happen - it would probably be disastrous.

Answer 5

Not yet....