World War III.2

The US hegemon is Ukraine’s biggest weapons supplier by far, although the White House has at times underlined there is no blank cheque for Kyiv, as it does not want Ukraine to escalate the conflict to the point of risking World War III. World War III was the biggest war that never happened. World War III was a global conflict that began with the Soviet invasion of the Western Europe. World War III.2 began in 2022, and was fought between Russia and the Collective West, using many of the weapaons that were accumulated during the Cold War.

In the hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine — although no country had declared war on Russia — many were asking: “Is this the start of World War III?” This act of war was intended to rewrite history, and upend the world balance of power. Brett Bruen, a former White House global engagement director who runs the Global Situation Room consultancy, stated “ there clearly is a worldwide war being waged on a range of fronts between democracies and authoritarian regimes. While they may not be fighting on the battlefield, they certainly are squaring off online and through regional conflicts in places like Ukraine and Afghanistan.”

Bryan Clark, a Hudson Institute senior fellow and a former director at the Chief of Naval Operations Strategic Studies Group, suggested, “This isn’t the start of World War III, at least in terms of how previous world wars played out. Russia can manage its operations in Ukraine to keep the conflict from escalating out of control, and the U.S., NATO and EU have reconciled themselves to not intervening militarily.” This could be, however, “the start of a long-term, slow-motion global confrontation between Russia and its Western neighbors, which could be complemented by conflict between China and its eastern neighbors,” Clark says.

World Wars I and II spanned multiple continents, while Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine was at first a war between two countries. Autocratic leaders – notably Russia and China – are united by a belief that it's time to re-shape the current world order, which emerged in the aftermath of World War II. They share a determination to reduce US and Western influence.

In a survey of more than 17,000 people across the world, three-quarters of respondents agreed with the statement, “I fear we are moving closer to World War III.” The findings are culled from the U.S. News & World Report Best Countries survey, which was fielded this year from April 30 to July 13 and is used for an annual, perception-based rankings of countries. The share of respondents who agreed that we’re heading toward global war rose above 80% in five countries: Indonesia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and the United States.

US President hosted Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on 21 December 2022. Biden did not name any individual countries, but claimed some European nations are hesitant about further escalating the conflict. He said: "They understand it fully, but they're not looking to go to war with Russia. They're not looking for a Third World War. There's more to say, but I probably already said too much."

World War 3 is the name given to a hypothetical third worldwide large-scale military conflict subsequent to World War 1 and World War 2. Urging Germany to deliver Leopard 2 tanks to Kyiv, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said 17 January 2023 : "The defeat of Ukraine may become a prelude to World War III." Cold War II could become World War III in 2023 " with China as the arsenal of autocracy, according to Niall Ferguson.

The year 2022 was the year war made a comeback, world war could make a comeback, and Cold War II could become World War III. World War III, also written WW3 and WWIII, refers to a series of memes referencing the possibility of a third world war. The third world war is a hypothetical third armed conflict on a planetary scale after the First and Second World Wars. First mentioned since 1941, some people use the term to designate limited or smaller conflicts, such as the Cold War and the War on Terrorism, while others believe that such a conflict will surpass previous world wars both in scale and in its destructive impact.

The naming of wars, a and the delimitation of their timing, is an art not a science. There was no World War I until there was a World War II. At the time, what eventually became known as World War I was generally known as the Great War, and contemporaries had no idea they were living during World War I. While the beginning of the Great War is conventionally dated to 29 July 1914, the Balkan Wars which precipitated this cataclysm began some two years previously. And the beginning of the Second World War is dated as 01 September 1939, various regional wars of the preceeding four years set the stage for this conflagration.

As the Russo-Ukraine War reached its one-year anniversary, much of the world remained in a state of denial, refusing to call this World War III, which it gave every indication of being. It was not just a Russia-Ukraine war but a proxy Russia-NATO war. The conventional definition of a World War is that it involves the participation of multiple major powers in a global conflict. Nearly 50 countries had sent military or humanitarian aid to Ukraine, from every continent except Antarctica, which sounds like a world war. While NATO allies seem solidly behind the United States, the developing world is not. Their response is much more ambiguous. Taking developing countries into account, roughly 70% of the world population is not on the American side.

Russians have every incentive to speak of WWIII, as this highlights the magnitude of the struggle which Vladimir Putin unleashed. Just so do Westerners have incentive to avoid this term, and thus avoid accepting their status as co-belligerents in the war. The usage of the term "World War III" amplifies the credibility of Russian nuclear threats in an existential conflict, which the West is loath to do.

While it is easy to bandy about phrases such as “World War III”, it is naïve not to consider that the West is engaged in a global war. WWIII does not have to look or feel like it was made in Hollywood. Russia and China share an interest in diminishing U.S. hegemony. Russian success in Ukraine may embolden China to attempt to take Taiwan and encourage other potential aggressors in the world. India continued to purchase large amounts of Russian oil despite the American-imposed embargo. A Russian victory keeping one or more of the four oblasts it occupied in Ukraine, may serve to highlight the limits of American power.