The question is will it be called World War 3. Wars are not labeled until they have long past the mark of it actually started.
So World War 1 and World War 2, all coincided with certain countries arming themselves up to the teeth, maintaining alliances and telling everyone don't worry it's only for defense. Take a look around at countries constantly increasing their military budgets far beyond what would be considered peacetime investment and shortages both natural and artificial.
There's a gunpowder (pellets/rods) shortage, that some blame on the ongoing RU/UKR War, but that's only demand not the supply portion. Some blame China for stopping deliveries of raw materials such as Nitrocellulose. Which is fair as China itself is ramping up its military and sprinkle some nefariousness, but artillery shell production is growing still just slower than desired. I'd believe that even if China had been making those deliveries there's still be a shortage. That shortage is a marker of the seriousness of military buildups around the world.
CHINA/US restricting trade of critical materials to each other as a proxy for slowing each other's progress down. China has many many advanced facilities for vertical integration of the minerals production (extraction, refining) process. It has been restricting some rare earth minerals such as gallium and germanium to hit at USA advanced chip acquisition primarily. China is a major source of Graphite. All that talk of green this and that is going to the gutter with the next round of Chinese export restrictions. USA has been restricting designs, chips and any other material that involves American brainpower from being funneled into China. USA has also been putting in place policies to effectively ban Chinese companies from participating in any major way in the western marketplace. Obviously, chip businesses have been getting around that by selling less than advanced chips to China. China's hurt by restrictions enough that they feel the need to strike back and hurt their own pockets. What's China to do other than throw the table against the wall.
A shooting war between major countries is inevitable. Wars are a result of breakdown of major diplomacy effort. The amount of wars currently going on serve as an outlet for tensions to cool unless of course the wars involve the highly interested Korean Peninsula, Taiwan, Philippines, Kashmir, Saharan region, Iran, Balkans region. Any of these could lead to one after another domino falling because diplomacy will be exhausted and major countries will be forced to put their armies on the ground to "protect" their national interests.
- Western governments protect western businesses who especially exploit other countries. With Russia intervening in Africa threatening the hell out of French and EU exploitive interests, the French are taking war with Russia very seriously. It's almost certainly to lead to clashes between France and Russia in the Saharan region. Where France benefits, the EU benefits, so the EU will most certainly get involved.
- China won't attack Taiwan until the USA's attention is sufficiently stretched out. The Korean Peninsula devolving into a war is one major step towards a land grab at Taiwan. Realistically land grabbing is the slowest, sustainable, practical way to deal with the Taiwan issue. Sending planes, ships and missiles to blow up the government without provocation is beyond stupid and simplistic just ask the Russians though it worked for the USA with mixed results. USA clearly has ideas on how to deal with that said situations, but how effectively they are can only be tested on the battlefield. I think it is interesting how China's military has cooled down on the tough talk from years ago, of striking USA assets in order to take Taiwan after the recent Anti-Chinese initiatives in western countries. Shutting up is typically a good tactic, but they let the cat out of the bag already.
There's a lot more occurring and this post only touches on top of mind issues. Subsequent posts will talk more about more contributing factors.
Concerns
Will another Transcontinental War involve N-word? Whose to say. I don't think it would since that is pretty much the end of any civilized society or government for that matter. What's the point of using a nuke if you don't get what you want in the end? Why not just use it now and end it then. Every government has a self preservation interest that prevents them from launching any nuclear weapons. There is no governed in a nuclear wasteland.
When did this Transcontinental War begin? Certainly after Osama Bin Laden led terrorist attack on America and before Russia's invasion of Georgia. The world order was challenged and has led up to this re-armament period.
When will it end? When USA's influence has decreased, EU, China has asserted itself and Russia split apart. Russia is too big and I think the peopld will find they need to accept a new reality on how to best organize itself. Russian Union perhaps. USA's influence decreasing means it is easier to stoke internal tensions.
- You got to wonder, at the end, if NYC will still be the financial center of the USA and if
Silicon Valley will still be standing at the end of it with all the
certain Anti-Asian sentiment that will decimate the security of East
Asians in the USA. Racism doesn't just go away because a war has ended.
Every incident traced back to a government or group results in people
similar in likeness to perpetrator being attacked. USA is still majority
white, so no, people of East Asian descents will be not safe in a war
with China. Blacks, Indian/Arabs are not 100% safe and there is no war
with African/Indian/Islamic governments or groups, so nothing makes East
Asians exceptional. World War 2 and the devastating aftermath on
Japanese Americans and immigration puts wishful thinking to rest. With Chinese and Indians making up quite a bit of Silicon Valley, you've got to wonder. Maybe more of them will actually take civil rights seriously in this country instead of relying on goodwill hoping that promises and presumptions will be held up and fulfilled. Or they will likely just take the beaten path back to their own country than fight against the inevitable prejudice. COVID was only a taste of that pent up anger. Take away people's iPhones? Wooooooo boy, good luck!
How about the smaller clashes/tension currently going on, could they lead to a major war? No.
I think Israel is beyond foolish to think it will be easy to take out
Hezbollah. Iran is certainly to join such a war in a major way for the defense of Muslims. Its
standing in the world has diminished sharply despite what western
governments blindly do for it. USA will not put boots on the ground for
that war. Israel is own its own, it is not 1960 anymore. China is the bigger fish. Unless there is some massacre of Israeli citizens no western country will be pushed to join it. The massacre of Palestinians though? That will not be forgotten and will haunt Israel relations with its neighbors for a long time.
Ethiopian-Eritrea War will result in Ethiopia getting what it wants, but at what cost. Eritrea should've just honored the agreements they had with Ethiopia. Not likely to lead to any major war.
Egypt-Ethiopia dispute over the Nile. Egypt wants to secure its water security that Ethiopia threatens. The pains of growing countries that they can hash out with diplomacy. War is not inevitable here.
Pakistan and Iran shockingly had some clashes earlier, but no major war or issue will come from there.
There are many minor clashes and tensions going on in South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, but nothing as major as the highly interested conflict zones.
When war does happen, don't be olde gRumpy Donald J tRump and claim you
have bone spurs. Take up arms or whatever skills you have and
contribute. If leadership happens to be people who are bumbling idiots sending you to a preventable war, take up arms against them after the war because that's the ideal time to facilitate leadership changes by force. War has a way to unite people enough that they hate each other more after it.
I can only conclude with, take off your rose colored glasses. Diplomacy will fail, you cannot control everything in the world, you will die one way or another so don't worry about it and live life. Life changes, so deal with it. Invest when people are in fear.