Modern Warfare: A Reflection at the Verge of World War III (1)

No, it's not a scene from Meteor Garden.
It's a missile shower from Iran

According to the Geneva Academy, over 100 armed conflicts are currently raging around the world, with the Middle East alone accounting for more than 40. Among these, the Zionist occupier's genocide in Gaza and its operations in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen—and recently, escalations involving U.S. intervention in Iran—stand out as especially severe. Africa is home to more than 30 non-international armed conflicts (NIACs), some pitting governments against insurgents, others fought between rival groups. In Asia, 19 sizzling flashpoints—like India–Pakistan and India–China—continue to threaten stability, alongside additional NIACs. Europe has seven active conflicts, mostly involving military occupations, led by Russia’s war in Ukraine and smaller but persistent flashpoints in South Ossetia–Abkhazia and Armenia–Azerbaijan. Latin America also struggles with six NIACs, primarily driven by criminal organizations in Mexico and Colombia. 

With tensions boiling over in the Middle East and neighboring regions teetering on the edge, many experts warn that we could be staring down the barrel of World War III. When discussing modern warfare, our attention often turns to the technology: what weapons are deployed, how large the armies are, and which strategies unfold. History tells us these questions seldom change—what does evolve is the power and speed of the armaments deployed.

During times of war, an arms race tends to emerge as nations compete to surpass one another in military capability. 

During World War I (1914–1918), the battlefield saw the widespread use of machine guns, chemical weapons, heavy artillery, armored vehicles—including the early deployment of tanks—and military aircraft, barely a decade after the Wright Brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk in 1903. 

World War II intensified this trend, with an emphasis on more powerful tanks, stronger naval fleets, and the growing importance of air superiority. The war culminated in the first use of nuclear weapons—Little Boy and Fat Man—dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, forever changing the nature of warfare. 

In the Cold War era, the arms race escalated even further. The Western and Eastern blocs developed tactical nuclear arsenals, heavier main battle tanks, stealthier submarines, and supersonic bombers and fighter jets—all in a constant push for strategic dominance. 

This naturally leads to the question: What would a third world war look like?

For the next few posts, I’ll try to explore that possibility—drawing from my unprofessional observations and interest in military technology since 2008—on how future warfare might unfold across land, sea, air, and beyond.

Stay tuned, guys.