The future of

80 years since the end of World War 2, the rules of engagement have been completely redrawn. As giants appear to stumble, and new dragons are born, conflict has become decentralised. The tools have multiplied. The fallouts are global. And the battlefield is everywhere. What would all-out war look like? Kashyap Kompella has a bit on that too

- Kashyap Kompella

There is a symbolic story about early humans who discover how to use flint to make a flame.

They fight over control of it. Their first word is fire; their second word is war.

For as long as there has been something to control and protect, we have fought over how to do it. War remains a central feature of our world.

Eighty years since the end of World War 2, that conflict is still shaping our reality. The battle in Gaza really began amid the fallout of World War 2. The perceived threat Russia presents to its European neighbours is rooted in the polarisation of the 1940s.

The ideological residue of the war still shapes alliances, defence budgets and threat perceptions. Meanwhile, the myth of the Long Peace (the idea that the absence of a third world war indicates an era of accord) ignores the reality that conflict has not vanished; it has merely become decentralised.

Regional tensions flare up with alarming frequency. Proxy wars, terror outfits, militias and cartels demonstrate a new type of asymmetry: non-state actors operating within and against sovereign nations.

International conflicts masquerading as civil wars have reshaped resource control, redrawn borders and identities, and challenged the very idea of statehood.

Today, amid nuclear restraint, the climate crisis and the rise of AI, the means of warfare have undergone a mutation. What was once a spectacle of trenches and treaties has become a hidden but relentless game of double-blind chess. The tussles play out between satellites systems, through backdoor code, and in hacked electricity grids.

Conflict, or the potential for it, is embedded in our cloud infrastructure, food supply chains, social networks and semiconductors. New “arms races” are underway.