According to reports, the Russia-Ukraine war recently entered a new phase. When the Ukrainian army moved into Russia, it became arguably the first time in history a nuclear-armed nation lost part of its core territory. At the same time, the situation in the Middle East continues to unravel. For months, western naval forces in the Red Sea have been battling Islamist rebels out of Yemen, and Israel continues its retaliation in Gaza for the Hamas massacres last October while also having to respond to Hezbollah in Lebanon. All this, as the potential grows of a wider conflict involving Israel, Iran and possibly the United States.
Meanwhile, Venezuelan incumbent Nicolás Maduro lost re-election but, to no one’s surprise, his Marxist regime has refused to yield power, sparking riots across the country. The prime minister of Bangladesh was recently forced from office, which has opened the door to Islamist attacks on the Hindu minority. In Africa, from Nigeria to Sudan, a combination of Muslim insurgents and Russian mercenaries are attempting to take power. And, of course, tensions between America and China have been escalating in the Pacific for a while now.
Future historians may refer to our moment as “the early days of World War III,” but is this an extraordinary time of crisis? In one sense, we live in a remarkably peaceful time. There has not been a war between any of the great powers in generations. On the other hand, there have been plenty of wars, and peace has been maintained by a mutual threat of mass destruction.
And there have been numerous close calls. In 1983, Soviet authorities nearly mistook a NATO exercise in Europe as a prelude to invasion. Twenty years earlier, there was the Cuban Missile Crisis. And 15 years before that, not long after the end of World War II, the Berlin Crisis nearly sparked World War III.
The wars of Napoleon and the French Revolution caught up most of Europe in combat. The American Revolution, the French and Indian War, and the War of Spanish Succession were, in a sense, world wars. The Chinese and Russian civil wars resulted in millions of lives lost in each. During the Taiping Rebellion, 20 million people were killed, placing it among the top five wars in history, if that dark rating system is used.