‘the Prospect of a Third World War Is Now Unthinkable.’ Do You Agree?
A world war is said to take place when all the countries in the world, or most of them, are directly involved. So far, the world has seen two devastating world wars, World War I and World War II. Both of them were begun by Germany in an attempt to expand her borders. Following this was the cold war between the US and Russia. Over the last fifty years, or so, there have been a few times when these two superpowers headed towards conflict, but good sense prevailed in the end and the much feared war did not break out. Any conflict between the two could have led to World War III. Since, the Russian empire has shrunk and the Soviet bloc fragmented, and since there is only one effective super power today, there is some reason to believe that a Third World War is unthinkable. However, this could be naive reality.
Wars can be declared by countries other than super powers and these may eventually involve the world; new super powers may arise to challenge American superiority leading to new conflicts; a series of little wars all over the world may lead to the whole world getting involved and, finally, even small conflicts, like the present conflict caused by the terrorists can bring about a Third World War. If at all anything can prevent war, it would be if men are rational; but this is a pipe dream. All it requires is an ambitious politician to whip up emotions and rationality will fly out the window in an instant.
Firstly, it does not require superpowers to start wars. Both world wars were begun by countries, Germany and Japan, which were not strong enough to take on the whole world. They depended on taking their neighbors on by one. The Vietnam War did present some dangers of developing into a world war. All it requires is for a country to begin attacking its neighbor; soon there will be others taking sides and before long a full scale war would be raging. With many smaller countries, like Korea, now possessing nuclear weapons, it is not impossible for some simple border
Wars can be declared by countries other than super powers and these may eventually involve the world; new super powers may arise to challenge American superiority leading to new conflicts; a series of little wars all over the world may lead to the whole world getting involved and, finally, even small conflicts, like the present conflict caused by the terrorists can bring about a Third World War. If at all anything can prevent war, it would be if men are rational; but this is a pipe dream. All it requires is an ambitious politician to whip up emotions and rationality will fly out the window in an instant.
Firstly, it does not require superpowers to start wars. Both world wars were begun by countries, Germany and Japan, which were not strong enough to take on the whole world. They depended on taking their neighbors on by one. The Vietnam War did present some dangers of developing into a world war. All it requires is for a country to begin attacking its neighbor; soon there will be others taking sides and before long a full scale war would be raging. With many smaller countries, like Korea, now possessing nuclear weapons, it is not impossible for some simple border