US attack on Iran shakes the world: Does World War III begin?

Early this Sunday marked a new and alarming turn in global geopolitics: United States launched a large-scale military attack against strategic facilities in Iran, provoking a wave of immediate reactions in the Middle East and raising alarms about a possible World War III among the major world powers. The American President, Donald Trump, stated on Saturday that the United States has "successfully" attacked three Iranian nuclear facilities, the first American bombings to occur amid the conflict between Israel and Iran. Governments in Europe, Asia, and Latin America have expressed their concern about the possibility of a regional escalation that could drag in other powers. Russia and China, strategic allies of Iran, have condemned the attack, while the UN convened an urgent meeting of the Security Council.

Several Arab countries unanimously condemned this Sunday's US attack which they considered a "serious threat" to the security of the Middle East, and defended the urgency of containing the situation through diplomatic channels after rejecting military solutions.

"Attacking nuclear facilities in Iran represents a serious threat to security and peace in the Middle East and exposes regional stability to serious risks," said Iraqi government spokesman Basem al-Awadi, in a statement to the official Iraqi news agency INA, in which he recalled that "the great powers and international organizations must avoid new crises in the world, not provoke them."

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In that sense, The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, admitted today that he fears a third world war, while proclaiming that "all of Ukraine is ours" and that he will not involve Russia in the conflict between Iran and Israel. «I am concerned. I say this without any irony and without jokes. There is a great potential for conflict that is growing. And, right under our noses, this directly concerns us, the conflict we are suffering in Ukraine, what is happening in the Middle East,» he said during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, an intervention broadcast live on television. The NATO and the Israeli government, for their part, have expressed support for Washington's action, although several diplomatic voices warn that a chain of reprisals could lead to a conflict of global and uncontrollable dimensions.

What is the beginning of a world war?

World War III is a concept that has been disseminated in popular culture since the 1940s, through books, movies, and television shows that commonly relate it to a nuclear war. In 1951 the magazine Collier's, published in the United States, published a complete issue detailing the fictional chronology of the new world war, under the title «Preview of the War We Do Not Want» («Preview of the war we do not want»). According to the publication, the war would begin when the Red Army invaded Yugoslavia, a fact to which the United States reacts with a bombing campaign over different points of the Soviet Union for three months. In the end, the Soviets attack New York, Washington D. C., Philadelphia and Detroit. Bob Dylan composed the song “Talkin’ World War III Blues”, included in the album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963), about a character who explains to a doctor about a dream he had where he visualized World War III, evoking “the paranoia of the Cold War in which the world comes to an end, and leads the protagonist to mistakenly believe that he will be able to survive [the war] somehow.” In Europe, there are many defense experts who warn about an ominous imminent future, with wars that will involve China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran in the next five years. According to this theory, we would be moving from a post-war world to a pre-war world. Historians and experts in international relations warn that the current situation presents similarities to the beginnings of past war conflicts, especially due to the complexity of cross-alliances and the fragility of diplomatic channels.

While world leaders call for moderation, the question remains in the air:
Are we facing a one-off reprisal or the beginning of World War III?. Time, and the next moves in this delicate geopolitical game, will tell.

Possible Consequences of a Third World War

Nuclear catastrophe (if atomic escalation occurs): Use of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons by powers such as the U.S., Russia, China, Iran, North Korea or Israel. Millions of immediate deaths from explosions, radiation and burns. In addition, global radioactive contamination: nuclear winter, loss of crops and drastic drop in temperatures. Massive destruction of cities and infrastructure: Aerial bombings, cyberattacks, and missiles would raze key cities. Collapse of electrical grids, telecommunications, potable water and health systems. Forced return to subsistence lifestyles in many regions. Collapse of the world economy: Fall of financial markets, disruption of global trade. Collapse of currencies, extreme inflation, and shortages of food and fuel. As well as the paralysis of the global industry (technology, medicines, energy). If this scenario occurs, the global escalation of the conflict could generate an unprecedented humanitarian crisis with millions of refugees fleeing combat zones.