I know this isn't strictly history but all wars have their roots in the past and my question is Where do you see the next world war emerging? who will fight it? why will it be fought?

The EU probably wouldn't do anything as a whole, their leadership doesn't have that type of power.  Countries like the UK would probably join, but I don't think all of Europe would or wouldn't.  I wouldn't be surprised if cracks in the EU are showing by then. 

Russia might become a US ally against China, which might make some Europeans feel squeezed, and thus ally them politically with China.  Others might feel that they need to remain neutral or benevolent to the US-Russian alliance on both their flanks.

Pakistan is a traditional Chinese ally, so I think they would either join China and get overwhelmed by American-Indo forces early on or remain neutral.  They could use nukes, but it would suicidal, and the American air force would probably attain air dominance early on, making nuclear delivery almost impossible.

Well,  unless I am tragically mistaken,  we are still a step above the rest of the world.  I would just say ten years till there is a simple defense system up.

Unless we get a real idiot leading us soon of course

"you already have..."

Thats true...

You probably know more than me on this, but since Russia shares two(?) boarders with China I'd think they'd feel a bit threatened, protecting themselves from a (probably) land/power hungry China. Also I *think the two would probably want the title of the most powerful country in Asia (although that probably goes to China)

Hop do's not hapen (WW3)

Too much people will die and a great wonders or ruins will be destroyed.

History is a story of humanity, so if history dies so will humanity.

But the terrace are not just fighting people in the West there fighting people in the Far East too and in the Middle East (the Iraqi police, the Turkish, the Israelites).

I think is very true, just US or the EU by itself can.

The reason I say this because the US is the number one power in earth and the EU is becoming stronger and more united every year.

And China does not have a good Air Force or big enough Air Force, so that saying, the US or EU can bombarded the country (list just hope the war does not happen period because like I said in my earlier post).

Does this guy know something that we don't?

He is studying the enemy, but this new enemy were facing is lucky that were not the Romans because the Romans would wipe them all out.

(that’s if they were still around)

(just compare the Romans time to the modern-day, please don’t take it the wrong way).

You cannot compare the West to the Muslim world. Population prehaps, but look at the wealth. Most Islamic nations are poor compared to western standards. Why do Islamic Terrorists justify killing innocent civilians as an act of good. I don't see in ANY religion that should be justifyed, and maybe if they can break out of there Islamic run governments and get a spread of ideas, they can see it too.

“Can't we just live our lives the way we want to and get along?”

Do not really know but I can tell you this, War has to do more than just to fight, people fight for better life, and governments fight for resource and power.

And I do not like anarchy, we still need some order in our lives, if no order it’ll be pure chaos.

people will not just stop fighting just because, there are reasons good or bad to fight or ideals, so saying that, this is why some people believe in peace through power.

Well i see the war starting in Saudi Arabi. It seems inevitable that the corrupt Saudi royal family will be eventually overthrown whether by bin Laden or another is irrelevant. With America so dependent on Saudi oil and the Saudi royal family being so close to America the Americans would have little choice but to step in. The sight of crusader tanks overrunning the holy land would leave muslims understandably upset and the middle eastern anti american and anti israeli tension could be expected to explode. Any middle eastern leader foolish enough to side with the Americans would find himself dead. The Americans presumably would be stubborn and stand their ground but against such radical opposition they would presumably be forced back.

With the Americans pushed out of the holy land the envigorated muslims would push on into israel. After fierce resistance from the israelis and the americans the infidel would be finally expelled from the holy land. Even the IDF believe this war is coming : they are buying up land in Argentina to start anew.

With the Holy Land purged of infidels the Muslim nations would set about founding a new Islamic empire -similar to that preached by al Quida- but internal disputes, civil war and the nuclear fallout from Israels last ditch nuke attack  would stop it emerging as an international player for some time. 

Meanwhile the battered and bruised Americans would stagger back home but there is no rest for the wicked. China will flex its musceles and overrun south east asia and russia east of the Urals. The Europeans would come to russian aid and a stalemate would ensue. The Americans would bravely and confidently march off to sort out the Chinese but still weary and demorilized from their defeat in Israel the overwhelming Chinese numbers would overcome them. At this point  buttons would be pressed. America in a desperate attempt to maintain its dominance would be wild with its nukes. China though crippled would persevere and counter strike though due to delivery limitations it may need to capture Alaska to get in range of America. Post appocalyptic America would descend into choas and would be removed from the equation.

In Europe the continued war would take its toll and racial tensions would presumably build eventually growing into open conflict. As Europe descended into chaos China would claim victory but it would be Phyrric. The destruction of infrastructure and the human cost would leave China unable to enjoy its victory.

Free from European and American interference and relatively unscathed by the war Africa would grow from strength to strength eventually recovering and taking on the islamic empire and india for hedgemony.

You may think this is wild and it probably is but thats my thoughts on the matter.

In responce to Benceno forgive me for neglecting south america . I see South America recovering, again due to the lack of US interference. I also see Mexico exenting its territory to a similar position as it once was. With so many Mexican hispanics in the US particularly the south they may choose to join with mexico. And with the US in so much choas they would be unable to do anything about it.

Also to pre-emt any complaints by oceanians out there i see austraillia generally staying out of it. With China facing heavy oppostion in Russia and from America the South East Asia campaign would be slowed and Austrailia would be out of harms way, It may enter the war on Britiain's behalf though only with troops fighting on the front in russia they would lack the strength to preserve a second front on china's south flank.

"And China does not have a good Air Force or big enough Air Force, so that saying, the US or EU can bombarded the country (list just hope the war does not happen period because like I said in my earlier post)."

That's kinda not accurate. China actually has the largest air force in the world even larger than the us in size. but the us got more advanced aircrafts. china got 6000 different types of aircrafts and like 500 advanced air superiority aircrafts namely su-27/j-11, su-33, su-30, j-10. but that's for now. dun forget china is rising and ww3 does not happen today. for more information, visit http://www.sinodefence.com - www.sinodefence.com

no one knows who will be the strongest 30 years from now.

500 yrs ago, china got the most advanced military that was able to kick everyone's ass in technology and size. but things changed. and things do not stop changing.

however, the chinese are not religious and are peace loving people. i don't see why it has to do with china. the only war china will fight is probably the one with taiwan (it's a chinese province under another government). that's not aggression but defence of national territory. also, many chinese are born to hate japanese. i dunno why. 

besides, economically, china will dominate in 50 years. china is starting to build its second magnetic line connecting shanghai to hanzhou (230 km). it will only take 27 mins to ride the whole trip.

china is the only country in the world that has operating magnetic trains. i've been on one and it was fast like crazy. when i was on the train, it went up to (430km/h) and it only took me 8 mins to finish the ride from the city to the airport of shanghai.  i've also been on the hopeless american commuter rail. it was slow, dirty, uncomfortable, and old. no comparison at all.

chinese people are also good at making economic maricles. e.g. Hong Kong, Singapore, Chinese in Indonesia, and Taiwan.

To take Hong Kong as an example, in the 60's the gdp per capita of Hong Kong was only 30 percent of that of Great Britain. in 30 years, its gdp per capital grew from 70 percent less than Britain to 35 percent more than Great Britain. Now Hong Kong's gdp per capital is almost still 35 percent higher than its former mother country of Great Britain. On a per capita basis, it's even higher than Germany and Japan. 

In Indonesia, the two percent of Chinese population controls over 80 percent of wealth in the entire country and the remaing 98 percent of native Indonesians share the remaining 20 percent and that was done under decades of anti-Chinese economic and politcal policies in Indonesia. No wonder there was an anti-Chinese movement in 1997 in Indonesia. 2 percent controls 80 percent of wealth. Only Chinese and Jewish people can do that. 

That's ture. But if communist party keep its awful reign in China mainland, Chinese will hardly develop China mainland like they did in HongKong,Singapore and Taiwan.

Yes, he was a brilliant mind...

"but they see china as more of a "slave state" of where they get cheap labor"

i take that as being offensive and insulting. please take it back.

the manufacturing process is moving from the us to mainland china and asia is because of the economic efficient factors. if you've taken macroeconomics, you should know what i'm talking about. there are countries that have cheaper labor than mainland china but they are inefficient in economic output.

maybe because of the fact that you are from a developing country of korea with relatively low living standard, you might not have witnessed the moving of manufacturing process. in hong kong, 90 percent of the factories have moved to mainland china since the 80's because of the more efficient manufacturing process there (more output can be generated with less resources). it's all economics and is nothing about the ignorant comment aossociating with "slave or any trash like that".

any sorta of useless nonsense is just nonsense like the ignorant and uneducated statement you made above.

Pakistan-India (Islam-Hindu)
Israel-Arabic States (Judaism-Islam)
Indonesia-East Timur (Islam-Christianity)
Gulf States-Iran (Sunni Islam-sh*te Islam)
Al-kaida-US (Islam-NonIslam)
Southern Thailand (Islam-Buddhism)
Algeria (Islam-Christianity)
Southern Philippines (Islam-Christianity)
Jaffna Peninsula (Hindu-Buddhism)
Northern India (Khalistan) (Sikh-Hindu)
Xinjiang (Islam-NonIslam)
Aceh (Extreme Islam-Moderate Islam)
Northern Ireland (Protestant Christianity-Catholic Christianity)
Bosnia (Islam-Christianity)
Chechnya (Islam-Christianity)
Armenia (Islam-Christianity)

South America's War .

Chile (Chile-Chile)
Mexico (Mexico-Mexico)
Venezuela (Venezuela-Venezuela)
Argentina (Argentina-Argentina)

most well-educated Americans, however, think otherwise. you are talking about the lower-class American families who have lost their factory jobs and think that it's because of china. economics doesn't work like they think it does. even without china, the outflow of jobs will still continue due to economic efficiency and the high capital cost in the us.

what are BRICs?

taiwan is not a target of chinese expansion but reunification!

the bible code didn't mention about china getting involved but israel.

china doesn't care about religion or the middle east. why would it get involved in some war that basically has nothing to do with it?

china and israel are also very friendly to each other that they trade weapons all the time with the us constantly giving pressure to israel not to sell to china.

china also got its own problems with the muslims in chinese central asia, namely xinjiang or east turkistan (according to the seperatists).

it's almost impossible that china will fight for them.

besides, because of confucianism, china and other east asia oriental countries basically have no terrorism and are even more anti-terrorism than europe and america.

the terrorist bombings in china are all carried out by the muslim minority in chinese central asia.

depends on how you define oriental. if it's chinese/korean/japanese, no because of confucianism. north korea doesn't count because their culture is no longer confucian but about their leader.

there were more murders in los angeles (three per days) last year than the entire east asia.

if you are talking about pakistan, afganistan and those muslims countries yes.

chinese culture focuses on the family, older people, respect, and the obligation to obey.

i can gaurantee that terrorism in the us and europe is a far bigger problem than it is in east asia. not only terorism on a large scale but on an average basis, western people are more violent than east asian people.

asian people are taught to be humble and respectful to others at least on the surface. they are taught to obey and not be self centered. it's the other way around for western people.

for muslims, it's just all killing.

no offense but the majority east asians tend to use their brains to solve problems. they are also less physically able on an average and relative basis.

Oh I have to disagree that eastern Asians are more peaceful.  They may have less terrorism than the west but that is because most of the terrorists that attack the west are from Asia or the Middle East.

As for terrorism in east Asia, I believe there was an attack a few years ago committed by cultists in a subway train.  They released deadly gases in the trains at the same time.  Along with that attack that same cult committed many murders.  Unfortunatly I forget the name of the cult and the date of that attack.

And as for westerners being more violent I must also disagree.  I'll bring up the point of what the Japanese did during WWII to many prisoners and civilians.  Not only was their treatment of prisoners horrible but their treatment of civlians was just as cruel.  Then they claim they did it in the name of the Emperor and their country.

This is just my opinion though so nobody get their pants up in a bunch.

[/QUOTE] most of the terrorists that attack the west are from Asia or the Middle East

not from east asia.

it's ignorant to consider the entire asia as one object because it's just too big.

middle eastern cultures have more similiarities with the west than with east asia.

east asia is only consisted of china/korea/japan

and that's it.

and please don't connect us with india, pakistan, middle east, indonesia etc...

we are more different from them than you are.

can you explain why the number of murders in california alone is higher than the entire east asia (greater china/japan/korea)?

That is easily enough explained. Americans believe that by carrying weapons they can defend themselves. That concept sounds logical, but in any lawful country, there should be no necessity to defend yourself in that manner, since if there are no weapons to reckless civilians, one needs no weapons to defend oneself.

Back to the w.w.3 topic, I believe we must look at this through the perspective of having seen what has already occured in history. At one time, the United States of America where a completly unconcerned country in the affairs of Europe. This was crucial to defend their name, where political persucation would not occur, the land of the free. In this 19th century, Europe was the axle of might, and America was not concerned with it, only perssuing the "freedom" of the americas.

Following the world wars, America has commited itself in every aspect of this earth during the cold war. Look at the coutnry now, they are everywhere. And for the time being, China remains dormant. They're time will come I assure you all that.

Now there are those who will argu that America is more technologically advanced than china, that china could never rival the U.S. Alright guys, I dunno how well you all understand the tendancies of capitalism, but the main element in it is competition. It has come to the point where the rich are reaping wealth to the point where the western culture is loosing it's middle class. In the 1960s, the richest ppl in america we're only roughly 39 times richer than an average citizen. Presently, I'm not sure if the ratio can be measured in the thousands. The basic idea here being is the rich are getting much much richer seeing how they control the economy, the poor are getting much much poorer, and the middle class slowly getting poorer too, why? Because western jobs are moving to east asia for cheaper labour. Now if we look at western history, industry built this place, yet our companies are leaving. We claim to be the most advanced, ...but our companies are leaving, and with them our jobs, our wealth, and eventually OUR TECHNOLOGY. It is only a matter of time before unemployement has risin to the point where there will be two classes, those who can still manage to keep up to society, and those who have fallen below. Interesting, this sounds a bit like the formation of the nobility centuries ago. And despite this tendancy, the general public, the middle class, is completly oblivious to this affect and is bombarded with advertisement to become the rich. People don't seem to care, and while this effect takes palce, it is gradual, so there will be no apparent alarms.

How much longer our middle class can survive I do not know. jobs such as services will fade as well as the base of our society leaves, which is the industry. Who will be left? WEll the rich of course, and guess where they are now? In foreign countries like china profiting off of cheap labour. Western industry cannot do competition with china any longer. It has come to that point. Inflation rises, university tuition fees rise, (and notice as ppl cannot pay for education eventually(university), only the rich will be able to educate themselves, and thus occupy the high administrtion offices of nations)... jobs flee, and still, the population is ignorant. Why? Becasue of our education, and who controls our education? THe governement, and who controls the governement? THe companies, and who controls the companies? The rich. Guys, I am predicting the reformation of an upper class, the 1% of society, and then the rest. Probably ressembling present day brazil and Russia.

Now back to w.w.3, when that day comes when China shows it's face on world issues, (to a greater extent I mean), it will be technologically advanced with an advanced military, with an air force and w/e else you guys can name the U.S has. Lazer, w/e, the works.

Currently, yes the U.S and E.u can take out china, but financial it is not necessary because to the rich, they simply care of where they can make the most wealth. With evey passing year China grows with western jobs, and America's technological advancement wanes in proportionality. Technologically depends on economy, and America's economy will crumble next to china's if this world tendency continues. Now it does not matter if the U.s has nukes, have a look at the soviet union, russian communism did not work, the nation could harldy support their grand military, and the regime crumbled.(I am making no relation between russian communism and chinese cough cough communism) WE still may be far off but I can see this happenning to the united states. It's all about the economy, and western economy has no future, none at least, on the path it is currently taking.

Now the outcome of a w.w.3 all depends on when in the future. THe earlier, the more in america's favour it would be. The farther in the future, the more to china's it will be.

Concerning the middle-east, oil will not last forever, but religion can.  THe only reason the middle-east is in the anti-western state it is is because of western foreign policy, but particularly american foreign policy. Pay them nothing, make them suffer, and they will retaliate. Now there are extremetists in every society, it is only when society is grieving do people listen to these radicals, and that is what is occuring in the middle-east. It has come to the point where the radicals are supported. Have a look at Nazi Germany, Hitler only came to power because the germans had been unjustifiably punished. If they had not been starving or not massively in debt or with money that had more worth than toilet paper they would not have supported the radical Hitler. Unjustifiably punished, just like the mid-east population (by american companies/foreign policy.)

If anyone wants to contest my declaration that the german people were innocent following w.w.1, let me just tell you that the world war 1 began for imperialistic reasons on both sides. A monarch does not represent the people. The kaiser was a king and not elected.

In retaliation to la traité de Versailes, Germany began world war two, which I believe is only what could have been expected considering the terms of the treaty of Versailles. Anyways, I'm just trying to relate the point that any hatred the mid-east has for western society has been provoked. Now some ppl see this and send foreign aid but the radicals know they're power depends on the suffering of their ppl, just like Hitler knew this, that is why they sniper these helpers down. It is a very simple concept, while back in America, the entire mid-east is classified has one big chunk of terrorism, as if these terrorists are terrorists for no reason. There is a reason to everything. Now I am not justifying attacks such as 9/11, murder is murder but I can say that perhaps we should ask ourselves why this took place, and if we truly want to resolve the future, maybe we should consider giving equal rights to all citizens of this earth, of every race, culture, religion, a global minimum wage, and greater worker rights, and maybe we'd solve soemthing.

I don't want there to be a war, let's pray there never is, but the alliances could be very variant. From here in north america, the entire fareast seems like one great society but there are differences among the asians as with us westerners.

If there is a war, make sure you do not fight for the greed of rich business men, but for universal truth, which is that every culture has a history and perspecitve. There is no true good or bad, only results of the circumstances.

THe European Union will make a very good superpower seeing how they're power is structured arround the cooperation between different cultures, while each maintains it's own identity...

ps: If anything I have said is offensive to anyone I apologize, I did not mean to offend. These are all purely conclusions made out of my personal research.

i read ur post. it's very well written.

however, i'd like to point out that many of the "ideal" solutions you pointed out to the future of the globe is not very ideal simply for few reasons:

greed (people are not likely to share anything with others and big bussiness are not likely to stop making money in the expense of the poor)

at least currently, from the war in iraq to the us government spending on education are largely financed by the people's bank of china. a war between china and the us simply cannot happen (i think) because of the economic ties between the two. currently, china is the largest holder of us debts and assets (japan is the second, hong kong is the third, taiwan is the fourth). they buy us assets in large blocks because they have to keep the us dollar strong to export their goods to the united states and to keep the fixed exchange rate against the us dollar. any war or even social instability in this region can cause tremendous effect on the us economy itself. for instance, if china decides to dump us assets, the us will need to raise the interest rate by a large margin, lower the price of its government debts to finance its twin deficits. from the morgage payments of us households to the price of ski boots in the us will increased by muiltiple times --- the results of which: huge depreciation of the dollar, historically high inflation, historically high interest rate (higher than the 70's level). these will all lead to depression.

and then the entire world will be affected. the economic system will collapse following the collapse of the us dollar.

a whole series of uncertain economic disastars are also likely to happen.

in conclusion, starting any military disputes with china for the us, means creating an economic depression for itself and everyone else in the world. the main concern of such a conflict is not simply casualty or anything like that but a global economic crisis that affects pretty much everyone of all classes in every country.

defending taiwan to prevent the reunification of china is, by no means, the interest of the us nor any other players in the world.

being friendly to one another will be in the interest of both china and the us.

when a country cannot sustain a war economically, it is bound to lose it no matter how great of a military it has. a war also does not have to have a winner. the soviet union was bound to lose the cold war when it started

"Some real end time baloney http://www.hogueprophecy.com"

What are you talking about?  Hogue is a genius.  He's put a lot of effort and research into his interpretations of Nostradamus -- the predictions have been dead on. 

A Catholic priest commenting on prophecy?  I'd take that with a grain of salt, for sure!

I thank you for taking the time to respond to my statement and have enjoyed reading what you had to say on the issue. You have revealed to me more in depth how greatly the chinese and american economies are linked, a stunning fact but half expected.

I agree with everything you have to say but would just like to add that the way the economy is set at the moment, it is favoring chinese developement and disfavoring the continuing existence of the western world middle class. A war would cause a depression without doubt and complete economic disarray around the world as you say, but I think the chinese massive developement would also be set back seeing how it's growth depends on taking advantage of the decline of the west; if such a conflict would suddenly take place, all foreign american production in China would cease.

So America would definitely fall but so too would China. It's as you say, the nations are too interlinked to just go to war. We must however admit that China and America are the superpowers of the future and seeing their relations endure is something we must all hope for...and as the chinese economy develops, so too will it's military and it is at this point when America's invisibility could then maybe be put into question.

Personally it does not matter to me if China grows strong, as long as the middle class of the western world is able to exist giving as many people the opportunity to live their potential, and the way we're headed, that may not always be so.

What would u say to the eventuality of a global minimum wage? A very far fetched solution but perhaps a noble one. What do you think would have to happen before this could take place?

ps: Thnx again coolstorm for your commentary, I appreciate it