Recently, former Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that the third world war has started as a hybrid. Akar said, “Has the Third World War started, when will it happen, what will happen? It has started. There is no declaration of war anymore. Blurred war. It is not clear whether there is a war or not. A typical example of this is the Ukraine-Russia war. Who is fighting the Russians? How can Ukraine do it alone? The whole world, but nobody shows up. They give weapons, ammunition, money, food, clothing, say ‘Come on, fight’ and Ukraine fights.”
In addition to Akar’s example of Ukraine, the western world is also committing genocide in Palestine by providing Israel with unlimited support in terms of ammunition, money and almost everything else. Still, it is debatable whether the third world war has started or not. The current situation is more akin to an operation to pacify and pacify the countries and groups that the western world, which is uneasy due to the change in the international conjuncture to its detriment, sees as a threat. In this context, we can say that it is China and Iran’s turn. They will force the countries in between, such as Turkey, to make a decision and ask them to choose sides. Maybe they will even stop using Ukraine as a trigger man and take the Russians with them by making it a bait for Russia.
If it is still called the third world war, we should add that the war is asymmetrical, that is, it is a war in which the forces are not equal but the strong and the weak clash. Time will tell whether the war will somehow turn into a direct conflict instead of being fought through proxy organizations and countries, but it seems as if it will continue as a hybrid, as Akar said. And the western world will win the war under normal conditions.
This is not only because of the military power of the West. The western world, which defeated only themselves in the two world wars (the war was mostly among themselves), could not defeat small countries (Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc.) despite destroying them. In the academic world, it is said that there are two kinds of power. First, you are powerful if you can make someone else do what you want. Second, you are powerful if you can resist someone else’s imposition. In the past, the non-western world has shown typical examples of the second type of power. But the result has not been good because they have suffered the pain and destruction.
But these days there is no unity to resist the impositions, even in the face of suffering. For example, even the Arab world has failed to stand up for Palestine, while the West, despite its strength, stands behind Israel against a weak Palestine. There are only a handful of countries that support Palestine, but their influence is limited.
In fact, the third world war, as well as the war itself, has become hybrid, but the east/south side cannot use this situation to its advantage. The real power of countries comes from the economy. If you have a strong economy, you have good weapons, because you have the money to produce or buy those weapons. The economy is about money and the world uses the dollar as a reserve and trade currency. 59% of central banks’ reserves are in dollars, while 88% of international trade is conducted in dollars. These percentages have not changed for years.
Although many countries said they were giving up the dollar, they did not or could not. Because there is no alternative to the dollar. In addition, countries switch back to the dollar when the environment softens. We have passed the dollar, we have seen in the boycotts for Palestine that there are not even alternative cola brands. In other words, even what can be done has not been done. However, if the war is won on the cola front, the dollar will be next. Then it will not be the turn of armed conflict. Because it is difficult for the loser of the economic war to win on the front. In conclusion, it can be said that whoever defeats the dollar can win the third world war.
Auto translated from yeniakit.com.tr
