cowshrptrn wrote:i doubt there will be any World War 3.
Wars like that are for territorial and power gains. Theres no need to conquer new territory in such a globalized world. To get natural resources (maybe oil, but if it becomes unstable enough people will start back pedaling and start looking into alternatives a lot more seriously) we can trade services, which there is rarely a shortage of and you don't need land for it.
as far as power's concerned, the MAD theory (Mutually Assured Destruction) means that there won't be anything worth controlling. It says that if we get into a large scale war, ONE of the countries will fire a nuke (probably the losing country when its close to being overtaken) which will prompt a retaliatory strike by the others. If the nuclear war doesn't kill us all, Nuclear winter will. If you're going to try and take power, you probably already know about this and won't bother going about it though a world war.
Most sensible and intellegant post yet. Another global war in the way people are describing it here is generally seen as ridiculous by those who study international relationships and politics.