BC Cook
WELCOME back, students, and I hope your fall semester of 2075 will be rewarding. Today, we look back on the momentous events of 2025, when the world plunged headlong into the Third World War.
Many people thought it would never happen. Some said that humankind learned its lesson about the destructiveness and futility of global conflicts in the First World War of 1914-1918 and the Second World War of 1939-1945. I suppose the best that can be said is that they held off on the sequel for 80 years. I guess that says something about us.
Like the First World War, but unlike the second, no one saw round three coming, although the signs were there and it should have been obvious. The Third World War began as several smaller wars that grew together to create one massive conflict.
Let’s start in Europe. By 2025, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had bogged down into a years-long struggle of attrition. Like Saddam Hussein’s gamble in Kuwait, Russian President Vladimir Putin hoped that the world would allow him to quietly annex, or re-acquire if that is your point of view, Ukraine, which had been part of the old Soviet Union. But once a united Europe and the United States intervened on the Ukrainians’ behalf, the invasion ground down into a bloody stalemate. The war took its toll on Russian manpower and the economy until Putin desperately tried to win it all by introducing chemical and biological weapons in direct contravention to international law. When Europe responded by using tactical battlefield nuclear weapons, the stakes were raised again, until all of Europe was at war.
On the other side of the world, China had been pushing back against American hegemony for some years by 2025. Having surpassed Japan as the most vibrant economy in Asia, China built up its military starting around 2015 until it was ready to invade Taiwan, snuff out the Philippines once and for all, bludgeon Vietnam into submission, and assist North Korea in re-unifying the peninsula. Out in the islands of the Pacific, China threatened America’s national security interests until the leaders in Washington committed fully to an “Asia First” defense strategy. This concentrated the bulk of American military might into the western Pacific in an effort to, as President Trump put it, “draw a line in the ocean where China could advance no further.” The Chinese, calculating they had reached a critical mass of military forces and could successfully invade Taiwan, chose their moment to provoke a crisis in the South China Sea.
Finally, the Middle East provided the spark that set off the powder keg and united these various conflicts into one global war that we learn about today. With the battle cry “Remember October 7,” Israeli forces attacked strongholds of Hamas and Hezbollah in retaliation for attacks on Israelis. Iran supported its Muslim allies and launched devastating strikes against Israel until leaders in Tel Aviv responded by using a nuclear weapon on Tehran.
We all know how the dominoes fell. Russia responded to the attack on its ally Iran by launching a massive strike against Israel and Kiev. The United States responded with a massive strike on St. Petersburg. China took advantage of the upheaval to invade Taiwan, which triggered alliance obligations in the Pacific. A coalition of the United States, Japan, the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, and Vietnam all went to war with China.
With the introduction of North Korean troops onto Ukrainian battlefields and Russian submarines attacking American ships in the Pacific, the various regional wars quickly merged into one global conflict. The media quickly dubbed the new coalition of Russia, China, Iran and their lesser partners “The New Axis,” reviving that term from the previous world war.
Ten years and two billion lives later, the world put down its weapons. And we pray that the human family never sees World War IV.
BC Cook, PhD lived on Saipan and has taught history for over 30 years. He is a director and historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org)
