The world is getting increasingly unstable not only on the economic front, but also militarily. When wars take place on a small scale as in Yemen, in Syria or in Palestine, the world at large does not give serious attention to it. But when it happens on a larger scale as it is the case of Ukraine war, the world's attention is riveted on it. Why? Because here the world's biggest powers are involved: Russia in a hot war, while the US-led NATO in a proxy war through Ukraine's defensive one. But each side knows what is really happening on the ground.
Now, the war front seems to be widening further. In the recent military exercises on the Korean peninsula where South Korean military took part in a joint military exercise with the US military styled, 'The Vigilant Storm', hundreds of military fighter jets took part. Even a supersonic B-1B bomber was learnt to have been flown on the concluding day of the military exercise last Saturday (November 5) in a show of force against North Korea. And on the same day, North Korea did also launch four short-range missiles. It may be noted that last week North Korea launched dozens of missiles including one of intercontinental range (ICBM).
Simultaneously, tension between China and the US over Taiwan has also heightened. Has the mutual respect about each other's sovereignty, especially among the nuclear powers, as was the hallmark of the Cold War era, vanished? Then comes the fear of triggering a nuclear Armageddon by mistake. It appears that the big powers are now getting bored doing nothing with their massive nuclear arsenals. So, they have started the mock wars as well as real ones where threats of using nuclear weapons have been repeatedly used.
Recently, the Russian president Vladimir Putin has personally overseen the country's strategic nuclear forces' annual drill, an act which the West considers an escalation. For, recently, Russian leaders, in reference to the Ukraine war, which entered the ninth month last weekend, have been warning of it (Ukraine war) descending into a nuclear conflict. Meanwhile, the US was also holding its nuclear war exercises. The recent telephonic conversations between the US defence secretary Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, after a long gap only points to the growing tensions between the two nuclear giants.
The Ukraine war has substantially weakened the UN's, especially, the UN Security Council (UNSC)'s role in halting escalation of tension among nuclear powers. In fact, the serious division between America and Russia over Ukraine war has rendered the UNSC practically dysfunctional. Perhaps, the world was never so insecure since the end of the Cold War. The perceived success in having alienated Russia and expansion of NATO with new inclusions might have blinded the western powers to the truth that the Cold War era drive to widen the sphere of influence bears no real meaning in today's highly connected world. The divisive rhetoric of 'we versus they, or the evil versus the good, or the free world vs the authoritarian other', etc is long dead. Because such division of life into back and white is not only simplistic, but also dangerous. So, is it the war to vindicate it?
There is no point glorifying any war by any ideology whatsoever. And that is more so when it turns into an occasion for displaying the superiority of one's latest military hardware over the adversary's.
This madness should stop.
