When will major powers go to war again, if ever...

When will major powers go to war again, if ever? Are nuclear arms going to permanently deter the powers from warring because of the threat of mutually assured destruction? I can't even see us going to war with North Korea despite all this shit. Will any real wars ever be fought again?

Major nations today are too interconnected economically to make waging war practical anymore.

No country in their right mind will use nukes offensively on a nuclear power. I see nukes being used defensively in the future though, with desperate countries with nothing to lose nuking enemy troops on their soil.

A war against N. Korea would not be "a real war" if I'm interpreting what you mean by this correctly. It would be more of another Iraq War than a WW3. Be assured that the USA is not invading without China's consent, and that Kim is not attacking S. Korea without the chinese allowing it if he wants to keep his seat.

Look at Pakistan and India if you want nuclear happenings. Those are two nuclear powers who have not to awnser to anyone and are not reliable (specially Pakistan).

People said the exact same thing before WW1.

Closest to a 'real' war would be Iran vs USA,

What people said before WW1 was that if a war did occur, it would be necessarily very short because the financial costs would be utterly ruinous for even the wealthiest of nations. What the economists didn't realize is that governments didn't care about maintaining balanced budgets, they just spent themselves into massive debt and borrowed money from the US.

What ? Iran doesn't have nuclear weapons. And will never have, Israel and the Us will prevent it.

No, that would be another Iraq or, more probably, another Vietnam. Iran is not a threat beyond the fact that they (correctly) feel threatened themselves by Israel and the KSA (and therefore the USA). They're also very aware that they're walking on glass and that they cannot go too far but cannot show weakness or passivity either.

google "Iran deal"

The major powers ARE at war right now in like ten different countries, they just use the citizens in those countries to fight for them instead of their own volunteer armies

A deal literally made to prevent Iran from getting nuclear weapons.

there will be war when U.S/NATO hegemony falls, every country will arm itself with nuclear weapons when the U.S is not policing the world around

No wars are relegated to uncivilized parts of the world now. It is a relic of our barbaric past.

Maybe if you're a delusional libtard. The deal doesn't do squat.

Not him, but people like you are the reason "/pol/ bogeyman" as a concept exists.

Using the word libtard on a historical board is the red flag for a certified retard.

not for a long time, anyways. US power is just too much for there to be any real wars until USA falls apart.

>Sir the Russian army managed to reach Florida by hiding in giant potato sacks what should we do
>Nuke it

A Netflix series about every country trying to invade the US in some silly way only to get nuked with the City they landed in. Fund it.

If by "real war" you mean big tank battles against the Soviets on the plains of Germany or seaborne invasions with millions of soldiers, the answer is probably not within the next couple of decades, assuming there's not some sort of economic collapse or global disaster that sets us back technologically. I could see India and Pakistan going to war, and maybe Chinese involvement in that, but I don't think the US will be fighting the Russians or the Chinese.

When i was in undergrad and studying this stuff there was a lot of theory that held trinitarian war was pretty much a thing of the past. I've not kept up with the literature since and that was 10 years ago. I think that theory is sound if you assume continued Western/US hegemony, but if that changes then who knows.

One thing that might lead to big wars being fought between nation states again is the rise of robotics. When you don't need to spend human lives waging wars they may seem like a more attractive option.

there is going to be a lull in MAD due to lasers etc. being able to neutralize ibms, but it will probably return due to new technologies that don't need a missile to deliver them and possess similarly destructive powers to nukes. basically the days of years long total war between great nations is over since the more technology progresses the shorter wars get if you start in the middle ages. i can see wars being really short and lopsided though due to 1 advantage (like a hack or something) debilitating drone fleets and what not. it would take a very rare case for great powers to be equally matched, and even then if both have very destructive powers total war would lead to a quick resolution or mutual destruction.

Imo it will be only proxy wars with puppet states/allies of the powers

Much like Syria

>no Netflix series about a limited nuclear war in the 50s where the Americans and Soviets drop 2 or 3 A-bombs on each other leading to a radically altered timeline where small tactical nukes are the norm in warfare

>soviets fell but now the CIA has taken over as a shadow government

Fuck off with your identity politics. Why don't you go and fight Iran then if you are such a big tough guy.

>nuking enemy troops on their soil
>not obliterating several of your own cities to shock the rest of the world into laying down their weapons

You can't compare a reltively small and flat country like Iraq with a shitty meme army to a large mountanous country with a well trained army that is trained in mountain gerilla warfare.
Not to mention they have hezbollah on their side who could make it rather painfull for the Americans in the area.

No. USA vs Iran would just be the USAF skullfucking whatever they see before a rapid, highly mechanized march towards Tehran by US ground forces. An occupation, would however, be a total shitshow

Not that guy but
>rapid, highly mechanized march towards Tehran by US ground forces
no fucking way, unless they manage to surprise the fuck out of Iran and invade from northern Pakistan. Then its feasible, but their supply lines would be trashed. If you try to invade from Iraq you have two major problems.
First off, I'm pretty sure Iraq won't be super happy having a shitload of American forces there again.
Second, good luck "marching" through the Zagros bud.
Naval invasions aren't really all that fun of a thought either, cause you would still have to deal with mountains. Iran would be a bitch to invade. That's not to say that the US would lose, and I agree that the USAF would probably skullfuck them into the abyss, but the best strategy is to just smash their supply lines and wait them out since Iran isn't exactly the most stable state.

Whoops, meant northern Afghanistan, my b

Don't forget how costly it would be to occupy Iran,

Once complete and uncontested air dominance is established over Iran, which wouldn't take very long, the logistics and supply of the Iranian ground forces would be an absolute turkey shoot. Without food or bullets, Iranian forces in the mountains would only be able to harry the advancing US forces. Any significant concentration of Iranian troops would be relentlessly bombed and/or encircled. There would be a few heroic last stands, but unless they do something drastic, like destroy their own infrastructure, the US advance would continue largely unimpeded. Obviously, this wouldn't happen as quickly as the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but the mountains of Iran are not an impossible to overcome and the Iranian troops fighting within them would have a hell of a time just staying supplied.

Everybody with a brain knew a big war was coming before WWI

The level of hubris displayed in some of these posts is terrifying.

The US military is so superior to every other conceivable force that a major world war is unthinkable in the short term. The side with America would win very quickly.

Until China has 10 aircraft carrier groups, with the doctrine and experience to use them effectively, or unless America decides to disband 75% of it's forces, we are going to be at peace

>small tactical nukes are the norm in warfare
>this lasts about 50 years until all topsoil and fresh water in the world are irradiated
>everyone dies anyway

So... Never?

This