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way to victory right now! The unthinkable has happened, and military
forces clash on land, in the air, on the sea and underneath it in the most violent war
to date. But what would actually happen after World
War III? The probability of a third world war is negligible,
but not impossible. All three of these big military powers who
have the capability to launch a global war all have too much to lose by doing so, but
history is full of examples of small conflicts spiraling completely out of control- and beyond
the plans of those who initiated them. To find out what the world will look like
after World War III, we have to examine two different global wars- a conventional war,
and a nuclear war. One thing is for sure, the economic damage
alone would reshape the face of the earth. Such a war would inevitably begin by a confrontation
between US and Chinese forces in the South or East China Sea. A Sino-US war isn't likely to go global, and
would require multiple escalatory steps to get there. First, China would have to directly threaten
or attack Japanese forces- something it is predisposed to do already because of the presence
of multiple US air bases in Japan. If China wanted to keep Japan out of the conflict,
it would have to avoid striking these bases- which would have seriously detrimental effects
on its ability to fight against the US. Next, a third party would have to be willing
to exploit the situation for its own advantage. The most likely culprits here are India, Iran,
and Russia. India would be tempted to act to push Chinese
ground forces out of the contested northern border regions- and perhaps even maneuver
itself to throw China out of Tibet thus threatening Chinese freshwater supplies and granting it
massive leverage over its rival. This is unlikely, but not impossible, as a
Sino-American war will be largely fought at sea and in the air, leaving the People's Liberation
Army free to fight against any Indian incursion. Iran, however is likely to exploit the diversion
of US forces from the region for its own gain. A war between the US and China would inevitably
cause a drawdown of US peacekeeping forces in other regions of the world. Currently 60% of US firepower is in the Pacific,
but as losses rapidly mount, the US will need to pull reinforcements from its multiple other
global commands. With American forces no longer acting as police
against bad actors, Iran could use the opportunity to attack Saudi Arabia and other gulf states
with its superior military. This would hugely disrupt global oil trade
and have devastating financial repercussions across the world. Russia might seek to exploit US preoccupation
with China for its own gain in Europe. While Russia has no ambition to rule all of
Europe, it could see a drawdown of US forces in Europe as the opportunity to take by force
breakaway Soviet republics, and even some of its NATO neighbors such as Lithuania, Latvia,
and Estonia. In a worst-case scenario, all three flash
points are ignited due to American preoccupation with China, leaving the world dramatically
different after the war. Such a war is almost certain to end with a
US victory over China- although an extremely costly and poorly defined victory. Immediately at war's end, the United States
military would be severely depleted, going from the world's most powerful fighting force,
to a significantly weakened force that still has global reach, but will take a decade or
more to restore itself to its former glory. American naval and air losses would be staggering,
with as much as half of its air and naval fleets destroyed. Half of the US aircraft carrier fleet would
be sunk in a conflict with China, a loss of over $50 billion in ship costs alone, over
500 aircraft, and over 12,000 seamen and aviators. The loss of all-important American carriers
alone would see the United States lose its ability to rapidly respond to global conflicts-
this loss in capability would only be compounded by significant losses in the US Air Force. Without the ability to rapidly and overwhelmingly
respond to a global crisis, the immediate post-war years would see an ignition of regional
wars across Africa and the Middle East. Critics of US military presence around the
world would rapidly see the cost of losing that peacekeeping force, as simmering tensions
suddenly explode in absence of the threat of US involvement. In the middle east, Iran would seize the opportunity
to attack its long-time rival Saudi Arabia. Despite being an oil-rich and wealthy nation,
Saudi Arabia is handily outclassed militarily by Iran as it has relied on the United States
to keep Iran in check for decades. No other power is likely to prevent Iranian
aggression in the Middle East, nor do they have the capability to do so. All European powers save for France simply
no longer have the expeditionary capabilities to respond to military conflict around the
world without US support- and France lacks the assets needed to significantly counter
Iranian aggression so far from its own shores. An oil-rich Iran would become a regional superpower,
shaping middle eastern policy to its own liking. This would inevitably lead to an explosion
of extremism with waves of attacks against Europe and African nations, launching both
continents into a dark age of terrorism. Enriched by Saudi Arabian wealth and oil fields,
Iran could continue a campaign of conquest unchecked across the Middle East, forcing
other neighboring nations into its fold and simply invading those that resisted. With its finger firmly on the oil tap to Europe,
Iran would have great influence over European powers- likely leading to a necessary build
up of military forces in Europe and an inevitable invasion of the Middle East years later. A Europe-Middle East war would be a world
war in its own right, with staggering casualties on all sides and economically ruinous for
both regions. Middle East turmoil would only make the lives
of those in China worse. In the aftermath of a war against the US,
the Chinese navy and air force would be obliterated, with only those forces left in reserve in
Western China against Indian or Russian incursions left intact. Chinese infrastructure- at least along its
Eastern Pacific border, would also suffer moderate damage due to American long-range
air attacks, while China can do little to militarily threaten the US homeland. Large-scale damage to Chinese port facilities
would only exuberate the damage caused by years of American naval blockade. China relies on the Pacific for the majority
of its trade, and most importantly for the import of energy resources. Despite heavy losses, the US Navy could still
undertake an effective blockade of Chinese trade, crippling the nation and resulting
in a GDP loss of as much as 35%. China in return could threaten US trade in
the Pacific as well, but would be unable to directly threaten either the American west
or east coast, resulting in only an expected GDP loss of 10% for the United States. But the disruption of trade in what is the
world's most important trade superhighway would only result in the weakening of East
Asian economies and, to a smaller extent, the entire world. East Asian nations would be the hardest hit
due to their dependence on Chinese goods. This will have a knock on effect on European
nations who import cheap goods manufactured in East Asia. The ensuing worldwide economic recession would
lead to flare ups in social unrest and widespread unemployment. This, combined with a worst-case scenario
of Iranian aggression in the Middle East, could set the stage for revolutionary movements
in some countries, and the flareup of partisan tensions spilling over into outright violence. Perhaps no nation would be as rocked as China
though, who despite inflicting incredible losses on the US military, would still be
facing a humiliating defeat with the near total loss of its navy and air force. American cyberwarfare operations would work
to steadily degrade the Chinese government's ability to censor information electronically
throughout the nation, and increasing unrest and war weariness would embolden pro-democracy
and separatist factions in China. While it's likely that the Chinese government
would remain intact, this would represent a significant threat to the Chinese Communist
Party, directly leading to ever more violent crackdowns on an increasingly rebellious population. We have already seen this scenario in miniature
thanks to the Hong Kong riots, and while China showed restraint in Hong Kong because of international
pressure, it's unlikely to show restraint when faced with similar uprisings within the
mainland when the survival of the CCP is threatened. The further disruption of the Chinese economy
would have a domino effect on the rest of the world, especially those nations that rely
on China for critical technology and imports. Global GDP would shrink significantly, leading
to unemployment and unrest across the world. While the rest of the world is suffering though,
one nation might come out of a third world war smelling like roses. Russia has long suffered under a weakening
economy, made worse by European sanctions due to its aggression in Crimea. However, the loss of Chinese trade routes
throughout the war, and a need by China to replace its destroyed military equipment,
would be a massive financial boon to the state. European powers might even be willing to lift
sanctions against Russia and provide economic concessions- or even political ones, such
as allowing Russia to reabsorb former Soviet Republics- in exchange for the aid of the
Russian military in fighting against Iranian aggression in the Middle East. A new global order after World War III would
see Russia rising to a position of prominence it hasn't held since the days of the Soviet
Union. But now let's look at a worst-case scenario-
complete and total nuclear warfare that spans the face of the earth. While a conventional World War III would still
see the United States suffer the least military or economic harm, a nuclear war would almost
completely level the playing field between China and the US, leaving both nations a ruined,
smoking wreck. The US still holds the advantage in number
and sophistication of nuclear weapons, thus China would inevitably suffer far greater
damage than the US. However, nearly every major US city would
suffer at least one nuclear strike, with most coming under fire from multiple warheads. Should Russia join the fray, it would inevitably
pull in nuclear NATO members such as France and Great Britain, and spread thermonuclear
warfare across four of the world's seven continents. Previous fears of nuclear winter have since
been proven to be overblown, but a global cooling effect will still take place, dropping
global temperatures by a few degrees. A drop of just 1 degree centigrade in global
temperatures would make Canadian wheat growing impossible, showing just how vulnerable the
global food supplies really is. What farmland isn't rendered fallow by a drop
in global temperatures would likely be unusable due to nuclear impacts. Both the US and Russia target each other's
vast swathes of farmland as nuclear targets, with the express intent of starving each other
into submission in case of nuclear war. With the US alone exporting much of the world's
grain, it wouldn't be just Americans that starve, but much of the world as well. Compound that with strikes against Russian
and Chinese food producing regions, plus contamination from other nuclear strikes, and hundreds of
millions would begin to starve within weeks. The initial casualties would also be in the
hundreds of millions, with hundreds of millions more falling prey to injuries and radiation
sickness within days to weeks. Then secondary effects of global nuclear war
would lead to even more deaths, as trade routes are disrupted, infrastructure is rendered
inoperable, and diseases caused by high concentration of airborne debris strike down people by the
millions. Many nations around the world rely on imports
to feed their populations, and the loss of global trade alone would doom tens of millions
to immediate starvation. As massive plumes of choking dust and debris
spread across countrysides in Australia, North American, Europe, and Asia, respiratory diseases
would claim millions more. Global firestorms would decimate wildlands
as fires ignited by burning cities spread for hundreds of miles around, causing fires
so vast that they would be visible from space if not for all the debris in the atmosphere. If one could peer through that thick haze
of gray that would remain aloft for days or even weeks, they would see a planet in flames,
with fires raging for weeks or even months and killing millions more. The world population would likely fall to
below 1 billion within 5 years of global thermonuclear war. Within a decade of starvation, disease, and
conflict for dwindling resources, humanity would be lucky to number in the 500 million. However, there is good reason to think that
humanity would not go extinct after all, and could even bounce back in time. Most nuclear strikes are designed to maximize
destruction. A ground burst of a nuclear weapon severely
limits its destructive range, as most of the energy of the explosion is sent down into
the ground or absorbed by ground features such as buildings, hills, etc. Therefore, nuclear weapons are designed to
explode over their target, greatly enhancing their lethality and avoiding ground clutter
altogether. While this makes nuclear weapons more lethal,
it has the positive side effect of sending much of the resulting radiation upwards and
into space. Fears of a global irradiated wasteland may
thus be overblown, and while it's certain that radioactive debris would be in harmful
levels just about anywhere on earth, humanity and the livestock and food crops it depends
on, could still survive in sufficient numbers to eventually bounce back. That's because the fissile material in a bomb
is destroyed in milliseconds, causing an intense burst of radioactivity that quickly falls
off as atoms decay in a chain reaction. In several years most radioactive fallout
would turn into more stable elements such as strontium-90. With its half-life of 29 years, strontium-90
and similar materials are still harmful, but not nearly as radioactive as materials with
a half-life of hours, minutes, or even seconds. As Nagasaki and Hiroshima have proven, it
doesn't take long for humanity to reclaim the ruins of cities struck by nuclear weapons. The real danger is in the sheer number of
weapons employed in a global nuclear war, and thus the higher concentrations of less
dangerous but still harmful, longer-lived radioactive isotopes in the water and soil. Human lifespans will be shortened dramatically,
and many species will go extinct due to climate change, natural ecosystems will collapse,
and a staggering amount of pollution will be created by the incineration of hundreds
of major cities. Even after all of that, within centuries humanity
should be well on the rebound. What shape the world would take however is
completely unknown, though it's likely that none of the current major powers would continue
to exist as cohesive states. In all likelihood, it would be Africa which
would become the lotus of economic and military power, as it is least likely to be directly
affected by nuclear war and, unlike the rest of the world, they would still be able to
feed most of their population as many African states have agrarian based economies. One thing is certain- the nations that launched
World War III would be not much more than dust, and utterly inconsequential in the new
era of human history to come. Thanks again to our sponsor Conflict of Nations,
the free online pvp strategy game set in a modern global warfare! Get a special gift of 13,000 gold and one
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World War III
