Do You Think There Will Be A WW III ?

[Jon Shafer]

Of course there will be another world war.

The only way that it doesn't happen is if the earth is blown to smithereens after getting hit with a somewhat substantial planetoid in the next half-century. We fought two over the course of 40 years, and people don't think we'll be able to manage at least one more in the next thousand+ years of human development?

[Solly]

It's going on at the moment. The War with Terrorism is WWIII

[Alexander's Horse]

Einstein said WWIV would be fought with sticks and stones so lets hope not.

Its hard to envisage the circumstances for WWIII. The major powers all have nukes.

[Bereta_Eder]

maybe there'll be a genetic manipulation injecting cockroach DNA to humans to endure the radiation.

[Harovan]

Originally posted by Trip
The only way that it doesn't happen is if the earth is blown to smithereens after getting hit with a somewhat substantial planetoid in the next half-century.

It doesn't take an asteroid for this to happen. A bunch of bugs in Civ4 will cause the same. And the epicenter will be in Hunts Valley.

Now go back to work, freak!

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
After the box office receipts of the last one they'd be crazy not to finish up the trilogy.

[Donegeal]

Look at the course of human history. It is riddled with war.

It is riddled with war after "The War to end all Wars".

It is riddled with war after WWII when we thought that conventional war was done for.

Humans go to war. Its what we do. I often think about the rosey Star Trek Universe and think Gene got it wrong. Humans are the Klingons.

[Maniac]

Small scale wars à la Iraq sure.

Nukes might make war between great powers impossible.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
It doesn't take an asteroid for this to happen. A bunch of bugs in Civ4 will cause the same. And the epicenter will be in Hunts Valley.

Now go back to work, freak!

Don't worry, I'm adding a few special features right now just for you...

[Harovan]

Awaiting them anxiously.

As for the original question: There will be wars for the foreseeable future. Religious wars, wars over ideologies, and wars over resources. However, large scale land wars are so XXth century, they hardly will occur anytime soon, mainly due to nuclear deterrence between large powers. And it takes several large powers on both sides to make a war deserving the term "World War". Therefor my vote is no.

The wars of the XXIth century will be rather Iraqesque, short and decisive, more a surgery than a war. But next time, please, take in account the aftermath.

[alva]

Originally posted by BeBro
I promise we don't start it this time.

Oh c'mon..go for the hat-trick mate!! You'll never get that opportunity again!!

It's going on at the moment. The War with Terrorism is WWIII

So, WWIII isn't the "WAR ON DRUGS"???

[Max Webster]

I think there will be wars. Things like Iraq. Small stuff. War on terrorism has always been going on long before the US finally noticed it and made a big stink about it. And the terrorism war will continue for years to come. Conducted by all kinds of groups that work behind the scenes.

I think the point about the superpowers having nukes is a good one. And the DanS point about space is too. I bet as we move out into space we will bicker and fight over resources and such.

[Jon Shafer]

Originally posted by Sir Ralph
As for the original question: There will be wars for the foreseeable future. Religious wars, wars over ideologies, and wars over resources. However, large scale land wars are so XXth century, they hardly will occur anytime soon, mainly due to nuclear deterrence between large powers. And it takes several large powers on both sides to make a war deserving the term "World War". Therefor my vote is no.

The wars of the XXIth century will be rather Iraqesque, short and decisive, more a surgery than a war. But next time, please, take in account the aftermath.

May or may not be another world war in the next century. Liklihood is low but a changing geo-political situation is inevitable, and eventually the USA will not be the most powerful country on the planet. Things are constantly changing and the world dynamic can easily shift enough to allow for another world war. We obviously can't fathom that sort of thing now, but neither could people in 1775.

[Impaler[WrG]]

Will their be a Full scale Globe Iradiating, Humanity anialating Nuclear exchange as was feared fortold by all the Hippies.....NO, deterance is simply too high, when major powers come to the "Brink" their will always be a secret compromise as their was in the Cuban Missle Crisis.

Their will still be major wars ofcorse but nothing that can legitimatly compare to the scale and scope of WWII (and in reality WWI wasn't very global it was almost completly contained to Europe).

Their is still a high liklyhood of a tri-polar power structure like that fortold in 1984 but with a few key differences. The EU and Russia form a liberal democratic block. China forms an essentialy Fashist (freemarket + Policestate) block and the US deteriorates into a Religious Fundamentalist state with a robber Barron Economy. With such massive Idealogical rifts its unlikly anyone will realy like anyone else enough to support war against one of the others. Also their will be extensive trade between all 3 making war much harder. The rest of the world will lag though it will continue to develop, south America may consolidate as a major power block and will likly not take sides. Africa remains a wasteland and the Middle East spirals downward once the global economy moves to Synthetic Fossil Fuels.

[Donegeal]

I just finished reading a fiction book about a small town in Florida that survived WWIII. It covered how they managed to get all thier life giving supplies in the aftermath. More importantly, it goes on to talk about the state of the world afterwards.

The last line of the book has the main character ask a member of the Decon team (some people who flew in the area with a helicopter to do some survey work) a simple question: (not excat quote, but close) "So... who won?" (they had been out of communication for almost a year) The equally simple response was "Does it matter?"

The book was "Alas, Babylon"