World War III

:For other uses, see World War Three (disambiguation).

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World War III is the name given to a hypothetical world war that would be fought between superpowers with weapons of mass destruction such as nuclear weapons.

Related Topics:
World war - Superpower - Weapons of mass destruction - Nuclear weapon

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In the latter half of the 20th century, military confrontation between the superpowers was considered to pose an extreme threat to establishing world peace, when the Cold War saw the capitalist United States face the communist Soviet Union. If this confrontation had escalated into full-scale war, it was widely thought that the conflict would become "World War III", and that the end result would be the extermination of human life, or at the very least, the collapse of civilization.

Related Topics:
20th century - World peace - Cold War - Capitalist - United States - Communist - Soviet Union - Extermination of human life - Civilization

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This outcome ranks with asteroid impact events, hostile technological singularities, and catastrophic climate change as one of the major mass extinction events that could befall humanity.

Related Topics:
Asteroid - Impact event - Technological singularities - Climate change - Mass extinction event

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The term World War III is sometimes used to describe the Cold War of the 20th century, while the War on Terror has been called World War IV. In the post September 11 era, others have used the term World War III to describe the War on Terror.

Related Topics:
Cold War - War on Terror - World War IV - September 11

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