Third World War

If a Third World War were to happen, would it be within our lifetime?

When would it happen? Where would the battlefields be? Who would be the protagonists?

How can we, as civilians, living in urban jungles, survive this unprecedented ordeal?

How would this war likely to be different from the two previous Great Wars?

Firstly, casualties would likely be many, many times higher. Modern weapons have become much more lethal. Populations are more densely concentrated in urban areas. They would be plump targets for any weapon of mass destruction.

Secondly, this war would be fought on more fronts than ever. New battlefields in the cyberspace and outer space would likely feature prominently in this latest edition.

Thirdly, most civilians would have fewer means for survival. Please allow me to elaborate further on this point.

Our lives have been vastly different from that of our ancestors' during the Great Wars. Most of us were born and grew up in cities, lead independent lives far away from our families, are dependent on the society for basic necessities like water, electricity and food. Most of us cannot survive a day without the Internet and our mobile gadgets. We are more intellectually exploited and tend to be less physically inclined in our daily jobs, leaving a lot of the heavy lifting to be done by advanced machinery.

Now how is this linked to our wartime scenario?

Consider this: in times of extreme resource scarcity and hardship, like during a war, what are the factors that would likely improve our chances of survival?

Having access to basic necessities like food and water would be important. In dense urban jungles with gleaming skyscrapers, what are the chances of finding supermarkets with ample food supply when the mortars start raining down? Which restaurant / bar / canteen / bakery would operate as though business is as usual? The supply chain that feeds and sustains a urban congregation would likely crumble and disintegrate. Government rations might be our only hope, but would our taste buds accept the bland staples instead of the fine dining and exotic foodstuff that are easily available to us right now?

Being close to loved ones can be a major factor that increases our chances of survival. Families would be a great source of support, trust and comfort as we live out a war. However, many of us now live far apart from our families for education or for jobs. We leave behind our elderly parents (for some, young kids as well) as we head to the cities or even overseas in search of better lives. The sense of separation, anguish and loneliness would likely be pervasive among this group of people as war breaks out. For the elderly (and the young) left to fend for themselves, their chances of survival would probably be dismal. Perhaps the next most reliable source of help would be from the government. However, what are the chances that your government would send much needed aid to you in a timely manner? Look at how most governments performed during past instances of disasters. In the event of an all-out all-consuming total war many times the scale of a local or regional disaster, do you think your social safety nets can cope?

While most people held on to their wealth as cash or physical assets in the past, most people nowadays have theirs in the various forms of financial instruments. As war looms, would there be a run on the banks? Would there be sufficient cash for everyone? Would credit cards and internet payment still be accepted? Would our paper wealth today even be worth a shilling as markets collapse? When today's cashless society enters wartime mode, how would it be like? What would be the most acceptable mode of transaction? The global citizen of the 21st century would likely be more financially crippled as war gets entangled in the increasingly complex web of financial dealings. Mind you, without money, one would easily go hungry.

There are just a few scenarios should there be a Third World War. They might just be one man's wild paranoia, or they might turn out to be frighteningly close to the truth. Whatever the case, most of us certainly do not have prior experience surviving through a war, much less a war that is likely going to be several orders of magnitude grander than the last. Well, let us all hope that world peace will last forever and none of us would need to endure the horrors of this self-inflicted calamity on mankind.