As conflict rises to frightening levels in the Middle East and Putin continues his bombardment of Ukraine, many are fearing if we are just one more disaster away from World War Three.
The Middle East is moving closer to a long-feared regional war, just two days after Iran fired a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel.
Most Western countries have urged their citizens to leave Lebanon immediately and a number of evacuation flights have been dispatched in the last 48 hours.
Meanwhile in Europe, Putin continues his relentless air strikes on Ukrainian citizens, warning the West they will be next if they interfere.
Tensions are also continuing to rise between China and the US and Beijing looks towards an invasion of Taiwan.
So what are the five triggers which could spark all-out war globally?
Iran gets nuclear weapons
Tensions in the Middle East have reached a boiling point, with Iran and Israel firing hundreds of missiles at each other and Lebanon.
Militant group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, launched a series of strikes against soldiers carrying out Israel’s ground invasion of Iran.
The exchanges have been so deadly the Guardian reported ‘it is hard to be sure the two sides have not already crossed the threshold for “all-out” war’.
If Hezbollah ends up in an ‘all-out’ war with Israel, it would not only be devastating for both sides, but impossible for Iran to not be drawn into it as well, Asher Kaufman, Professor of History and Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame said.
Any direct conflict between Iran and Israel could drag the US into battle, and the Western superpower and the UK are both concerned Russia is sharing information with Iran to help them build nuclear weapons, Bloomberg reports.
The US has frequently tried to stop Iran from developing nuclear capabilities as the regime’s ideology and behaviour is vastly different and seen as more threatening compared to other countries who hold nukes.
Although a nuclear-armed Iran could act as a deterrent with Israel, it would still be deemed too great of a risk for the US to simply accept, even if that means all-out war in the Middle East.
Putin attacks a Nato country
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 brought war into Europe for the first time since World War Two.
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Ukraine has been subject to air strikes ever since, with more than 30,000 killed and no sign of let-up from Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Volodymyr Zelensky, president of Ukraine, has repeatedly warned if Nato does not help his country, Putin will target them next which ‘certainly means the Third World War’.
Putin has told the West they risk facing his wrath if they are seen to be helping Ukraine too much.
What is Nato?
‘NATO’ stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
The group was formed in 1949 and now has 31 members from Europe and North America.
Each member country has pledged to protect each other if attacked.
The current members are: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Sweden has submitted an application to join NATO.
But this has not stopped western powers including the UK, France and Germany from sending weapons and helping to train their military.
Due to the pact with Nato, it would take just one attack on any member country, which includes states closer to the conflict such as Poland, for the organisation to enter all-out war.
Polish PM Donald Tusk told newspaper network LENA, ‘We are in a pre-war era,’ after Russian missiles came dangerously close to his country.
Ukraine is now pushing for permission to use Western weapons to attack Russian territory, which Putin said earlier this year will be ‘one step away from a full-scale World War Three’.
He will also not stop with Ukraine if he is successful, with the Baltic states next in line ‘if the alliance is seen as too spineless to stop him’, Sky news reports.
China invades Taiwan
Tensions between China and the US have only increased over the years, with the souring relationship long considered to be the greatest threat to global stability.
Taiwan’s sovereignty has been the focal point of tension between the two powers, with Beijing seeing the island nation as part of Chinese territory.
It has even gone so far as denouncing Taiwan’s leaders as ‘dangerous separatists’, and is aiming to invade Taiwan by 2027.
But the island has continued to fight for its independence with the support of the US, both financially and militarily.
There are still concerns China will achieve its goal of invasion. with admiral John Aquilino telling the congress Beijing will build up its army ‘on a scale not seen since World War Two’.
The US is dedicating more and more of its resources into its presence in the Pacific and the South China Sea, where the states repeatedly come into conflict.
Leaders are failing to ‘grasp the full significance of that militarisation’ with the pair ‘one accident and a bad decision away from catastrophic war’, Foreign Policy reports.
The Times wrote any invasion carried out by China ‘would be one of the most dangerous and consequential events of the 21st century’.
They added it would even ‘make the Russian attack on Ukraine look like a sideshow by comparison’.
North Korea launches full-scale attack on South Korea
North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un has continued to focus on building his nuclear arsenal and warned the actions of the US and its allies have pushed the Korean peninsula to the brink of war.
Tensions have been rising between North and South Korea, with a balloon war launched earlier this year which saw rubbish dumped over the South.
It came after activists in South Korea sent balloons ‘carrying propaganda material about their democratic society’ to North Koreans living under the harsh dictatorship of Kim Jong Un.
Both sides have abandoned plans of any form of reconciliation, with the South scrapping their non-hostility pact as ‘psychological warfare had tipped over into real escalation’.
The South continues to play K-Pop music to those guarding the North’s border across the Demilitarised Zone.
Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, said the North would launch ‘counteractions’ if the South did not stop its actions along the zone.
The US has become involved, and conducted a bombing drill with Seoul in June for the first time in seven years as a ‘warning against North Korea’.
Climate change and diminishing natural resources
Climate change has meant access to resources has been dwindling, with extreme weather events ruining infrastructure.
The UN Secretary generals have even sounded the alarm, with Kofi Annan saying all the way back in 2001: ‘Fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future.’
A few years ago, Pope Francis even asked: ‘If in this piecemeal Third World War that we are living through, are we not going toward a great world war for water?’
Cities across the world are in desperate need of water, with usage increasing at more than twice the rate of population in the 20th century.
In 2017 relentless droughts forced 20 million people across Africa and the Middle East to migrate due to consequent food shortages and conflicts.
The United Nations said up to 700 million people are at risk of displacement due to drought by 2030.
Such a surge in migration raises the chances of conflict as populations states and cities dramatically increase.
After analysing current water availability and future projections, the UN confirmed water conflict is likely in 300 areas.
Countries are now beginning to branch out in space, with hostile states such as Iran announcing in January they had launched three satellites into orbit.
Admiral Christopher Grady, vice-chairman of America’s joint chiefs of staff, said: ‘Space has emerged as our most essential warfighting domain.’
Russia has already alarmed US officials by developing a nuclear weapon which can attack satellites in space.
There are thousands up in orbit that have a wide range of implications: from TV shows to state tracking.
Pentagon officials have warned satellites are vulnerable to attack.
In 2007, China fired a missile that destroyed a dead weather satellite. In 2021, Russia hit another dead satellite.
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