South Africa in World War III

IN RECENT years, we have seen periodic global conflicts, with the potential of triggering the start of World War III.

- VINESH SELVAN

One of the most notable conflicts was between Russia and Ukraine, which started in 2014 and escalated in 2022.

Russia made military advances to achieve political gain, while Ukraine, with a smaller military force, conjured international support to counter the invasion.

The West offered support in the form of the supply of arms and munitions, intelligence and military training to civilian volunteers through private military contractors. During the escalation of the war in 2022, a few South Africans of Indian origin, who were studying in Ukraine, fell part of the fleeing masses into neighbouring Poland.

Another notable and more recent conflict was between India and Pakistan. A conflict where each country became a proxy to test global players’ military hardware head-to-head. Both countries have been involved in a long-standing conflict since the India-Pakistan partition. The recent conflict has been a focus on the use of drones and other airborne attacks, to get the other to expose its air defence systems along its border region. In the event of a full-scale war, knowing the enemy’s air defence systems’ locations would place one at an advantage in terms of air superiority.

Needless to say, the propaganda machines also kicked into gear, driving patriotism towards each nationality, with the incitement of the layman into much of the social media propaganda war.

Sadly, extremists from both sides have settled in South Africa, sowing division within our local Indian community, with the hope of driving their foreign-based political agenda.

This conflict was quickly defused with the intervention of the US for a ceasefire agreement.

The current conflict between Iran and Israel has placed global powers on the edge as these two nuclear-armed countries attack each other with ballistic missiles.