The intense tension between the United States and North Korea, India and Pakistan, and a number of other states raised questions about the likelihood (or, in the worst case, the inevitability) of a global military conflict.
Let's take a look at the top 7 likely reasons why World War III could theoretically begin.
7. Lack of food
Amid the economic downturn and rising inflation, the cost of food in developing countries has reached an incredibly high level. According to various estimates, residents of the poorest countries of the world spend from 50% to 70% of their income on food.
With this development of events, those below the poverty line are getting less and less food, while those at the other end of the pyramid of needs are accumulating more and more resources.
According to the report “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World - 2018”, 821 million people or every ninth inhabitant of the Earth are starving in the world. And over 150 million children under the age of 5 are stunted due to malnutrition.
In addition, the rapid growth of the planet’s population and climatic changes, which many crops are not ready for, and the decrease in groundwater levels, as well as many other factors, play their role in this problem.
6. Conflict between major powers
According to analysts of the American military magazine The National Interest, the Third World War will begin in one of the locations in which the interests of major world powers clashed. These places include:
- South China Sea. There are a number of disputed islands claimed by China.
- Ukraine. Recent events related to the attempt of Ukrainian Navy ships to pass through the Kerch Strait from Odessa to Mariupol have led to increased tension between Russia and the United States. And the British edition of The Daily Express even admitted that the Russian-Ukrainian crisis could develop into an open military confrontation between the countries.
- Persian Gulf. There, at any moment, a military conflict may begin between the Kurds, Turks, Syrians and Iraqis.
- Korean peninsula. Despite the fact that tensions in this region have somewhat decreased over the past year, the DPRK leader Kim Jong-un is unpredictable.
5. Lack of water
About 75% of the planet is water, but only 2.8% is fresh. Of these 2.8%, only 1% is easily accessible to the world's population.
And if you believe scientists who predict that in the next 100 years the temperature on the planet will increase by 3.7-4.8 degrees compared to the pre-industrial level, we can assume that the value of water as the main resource for life will only grow.
By 2026, in the worst case, or in 2031 (with the most optimistic forecast), the average temperature in the world will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius due to global warming.
Therefore, the struggle for freshwater resources may be one of the causes of the Third World War.
4. Lack of non-renewable resources
Non-renewable energy sources in the world, such as coal, oil and natural gas, are disappearing too fast. For example, according to a statement made by the head of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation Sergey Donskoy in 2016, there are only 57 years of proven oil reserves in Russia. And what will happen when the shortage of “black gold”, “blue fuel” and other non-renewable resources is felt all over the world? Strong countries are likely to try to replenish their stocks at the expense of weak countries.
However, no one knows exactly how oil is formed, so it can relate to renewable resources. As well as there is no reliable information about the oil reserves of the Earth.
In Russia, for example, data on oil reserves have not been officially published since the Soviet era. This enables businessmen and politicians to manipulate numbers depending on the current economic situation.
3. Diseases
We live in an interconnected world, and the question is not whether an outbreak of a deadly disease will occur, but when it will occur. And, more importantly, whether the world is ready for it.
And the fact that he may not be ready was shown by the outbreak of Ebola's deadly fever in Guinea in 2014, which went beyond the borders of the country, affecting not only the neighboring states in West Africa (Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Senegal, Mali) but also the USA and Spain.
This case is unique, since such an epidemic began in West Africa for the first time, and local doctors simply did not have experience in dealing with it.
Of course, the zombie apocalypse shown in the Resident Evil is unlikely to threaten humanity. However, attempts to prevent an epidemic by regulating the movements of tens of thousands of people and depriving them of their right to access the outside world are not a step in the right direction.
Such discrimination, instead of treating the disease, can lead to rampant violence and aggression for the right to life and health. Hitherto unknown diseases, as well as the presence or absence of drugs, could potentially lead to a catastrophic world war.
2. Information technology
Do you know that the World Wide Web is a product of military development? The development of the Internet began in the distant 60s of the last century, when the US Department of Defense implemented a project to link individual computers installed in various organizations of the defense complex. So the US military wanted to make communication lines less vulnerable in the event of a nuclear war. If some nodes were damaged,
Therefore, the boom in the world of information technology is very important for understanding the mechanisms of relations between nations. Information has become a powerful means of warfare, both virtual and real. And those in power who have all the information are in power.
The question of what information should be kept confidential and what should be shared today is the subject of serious debate. If the world is revealed what is confidential, and this information leads to world-class scandals (as is the case with Wikileaks), then we may have started the Third World War. And it is conducted in cyberspace.
1. Arms race
The growing investment in weapons, especially nuclear weapons, is a potential threat to the world and future generations. Billions of dollars are allocated annually for the maintenance of the world's most powerful armies and the modernization of military equipment.
Although weapons of mass destruction are in most cases created to deter a potential adversary, they have been used in the past. You have probably already guessed that I will cite the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki as an example.
Trying to "hold weapons with weapons", countries enter into a crazy arms race, which can end only in a few generations of several missiles flying around the world. Then it will be completely unimportant who first unleashed the Third World War. After all, it will end the same for everyone.
