Are we heading for another world war – or has it already started?

https://www.theguardian.com/news/ng-interactive/2025/may/10/are-we-heading-for-another-world-war-or-has-it-already-started

Posted by Ecstatic_Ad_4476

11 comments
  1. I think for much of human history ongoing regional wars were the norm. WWI and WWII were aberrations. We’re at that state now. Some fighting in a couple places in Africa, something going on in the middle East, something in south Asia, something in Europe, etc. I believe it’ll continue like that.

    India, China, and Pakistan are truly commendable for not going nuclear. Can’t always bet on sane heads to prevail everywhere. MAD reduces the likelihood of a true WWIII.

  2. World wars over Israel and Gaza are very unlikely. The only support Hamas can muster comes from a weakened Iran. The neighboring Arab states have too much to lose by meddling in it.

    A world war over Pakistan and India is also unlikely. America has been aligned with Pakistan since the Cold War—Kissinger even supplied Pakistan during its genocidal campaign in 1971. There don’t seem to be any real consequences for Pakistan’s backing of, or providing safe haven to, terrorist groups. Its military dictatorship hides behind a nuclear arsenal. That said, the West may increasingly support India as a foil to China’s close relationship with Pakistan. It’s difficult to parse the direction of these dynamics at the moment.

    The war between Ukraine and Russia appears to be a perpetual stalemate. If Russia refuses to return a reasonable amount of stolen territory and Ukraine’s security concerns aren’t addressed—either through NATO membership or increased arms stockpiles—we are simply laying the groundwork for a future incursion like we did in 2014.

  3. The fallacy here is thinking the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Spoiler alert: it did not.

    The only question now is how hot is the Cold War going to get now that the world has demonstrated they are unwilling and/or unable to stop aggressors with nuclear stockpiles.

  4. EU and NATO have been vocal about moving forward without America, but I wonder if history will repeat itself when they eventually call on us to step in. The world resents us playing global police, yet getting into chaos when we step back.

  5. Conflict is the natural state of man. The period of extended peace with no major wars or military conflicts most of us grew up in is the abnormal timeline.

  6. Yes, I do feel very ominously we are in the warming phases preceding one.

    When defining a world war, it would need to occur to me that there are simultaneous world conflicts DIRECTLY involving the world, and by the world, I mean the current major stakeholders in the world economy.

    Since that often translates to being the major military powers with the largest standing armies and arsenals, it would mean full-scale wars resulting in the deaths of millions and cities reduced to rubble ALL OVER THE WORLD!

    Basically, going off the first two wars, it would be as if NATO were to put *boots on the ground* against a Russia-China “Axis” in Ukraine, while also doing the same in the Israel-Iran, India-Pakistan and North/South Korean conflicts.

  7. The post-Cold War peace is ending. The global order was maintained by American arms. With the us retreating, we get all these regional wars again. It’s not another world war, and it’s unlikely to turn into one. None of these conflicts really have anything to do with each other, and the powers of today are shadows of what they were before the world wars. The only one that can reach worldwide is America. And none of the conflicts impact America right now. If China jumps, Taiwan or Russia invades Poland, then maybe, but I figure both of those would be separate regional wars, not combined into a world war

  8. Meh i think articles like this are somewhat click bait. If you were to ask someone prior to WW2 if they thought they were heading into a world war based on the events of that time, they would most likely tell you no. It’s nearly impossible to predict what will or won’t set off another world war.

  9. The high price of cheap goods, that could’ve been sourced elsewhere, coming due for payment.

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