However, a few possible sources of instability can be mentioned for example,
1. Anti-WMD technology is developing fast among Developed nations.
2. The global energy, nutrition, land and raw materials need is approaching the planet's maximum capacity and its ability to renew it's resources.
3. Economic growth is becoming global (India and China being highlights) and imposing further burdens on the planet's resources. Competition creates the need for economies of scale and Countries may one day look to be of a certain minimum size to achieve that. (we can see this already happening in Europe with the EU)
4. The population growth at an increasing rate forces economies to expand or face mass starvation.
5. Technology into nanotech-Genetics is an area I believe will plant the seeds for many unforeseen results.
6. International Law is loose. When resources grow scarce soon, dis-coordination among countries leaves them often faced with the prisoner's dilemma and rivalry behavior often creates incentive for one country to invade it's competitor.
7. UN is a product of WW2 with powers concentrated on the allied nations but it itself is fundamentally weak resting it core pillar of existence on the good relations and cooperation of the 5 veto nations. It was already shown a history of ineffective effort in overcoming global problems.

The next war will happen - as long as there is peace we will grow and as long as we grow we will eventually reach the limit of sustainability for growth and disequilibrium grows and it take a major event to readjust and bring the cycle full circle. It probably takes a major event to cause the next world war. Instability can build up and is only released when a sequence of events are just right, and the longer it takes for that to happen to bigger is the readjustment. War therefore is not necessary for existence but Just as there can only be a heaven when there's hell, Growth and War are inseparable brothers WE cannot resist indulging in. Truth is plain

We are all gonnnnnnnaaaaaaaa diiiiiiiieeeeeeee !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Come on all 6.5 billion of you. Join me! 1,2,3 We're all gonnnnnnaaaaaa diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiieeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! Think about it. Then we all can shut the f**k up once and for all.

I hate to break it to you, but WW3 wouldn't help the economy. In WW2, the majority of our income came from getting common people to build Tanks, Airplanes, and Ships. More than likely, in WW3 there will be only nukes. With such destructive power, who would need to send a foot soldier anymore? Since the Cold War, we have so many more nukes to our availability, therefore not needing anyone to get jobs. There is a possibility that this could not happen, however, these chances are slim. With natural resources running short of demand, anger from insane, power-drunk leaders would lead to them to be incredibly irrational and use the most deadly way possible to get what they want.

This next comment probably won't be read because it's in response to the first page or two of posts. Yes, Japan prospered after WW2. This wasn't because of the two nukes we dropped, which had no benefit to the Japanese. I have no idea how you believe Hiroshima and Nagasaki made everything better. There were like 3 buildings partially with stability in Hiroshima, if I recall. On topic. Japan only prospered because we gave them resources to rebuild and showed kindness. We gave them technology, which they advanced faster than we could, because we were too busy making nukes and preparing space satellites (which is a good thing at the same time). Since Japan advanced so quickly, Americans demand for Japanese electronics increased, and therefore we bought expensive materials from them. This made their economy boom. In general, WW2 did not benefit anyone. America helped Japan restart, not Japan.

Yeah, Germany was doing just great after WW1.

As the saying goes....
" i don't know what the world war 3 will be fought with but i am sure that world war 4 will be fought with bricks and stones"

Send me your comments at aftabpardesi@hotmail.com

Wars don't make things better. Only compassion for your fellow humans makes things better. 2012 is supposed to be a time of enlightenment for all of us. In fact it is already happening. That so many are responding to this forum is a good indication and I think this is all being made possible by the internet. At no other time in history could so many people get timely information about what going on in the world. And as soon as one person learns something it gets spread to another person. The only way humans will act in concert to affect global change is if we are all of a like mind. The internet is helping to do this.

In the past not everybody could read, or had access to books or radio. So this meant the ruling elite could manipulate the ignorant masses. You can bet if we didn't have the information super-highway the Iraq war would have gone a lot differently. News was able to be smuggled out via the internet. The army had no choice but to have embedded media personnel travel with the troops to make sure the right spin was put on the news. But no matter how much pressure was put on the television media to "tone it down", from the internet gushed forth terabytes of information about the dark side of the war. And it was dark.

We don't need more wars to fix things, we need people everywhere to stand up to oppression. To look their leaders straight in the eye and say "bullsh*t". If you paid any attention to the anti-government rallies that took place in Iran, that should be inspirational to us all considering they are among the most oppressed citizens of the world. Did any one(other than me) notice how oppressive the US government got toward the anti-Iraq-war protesters in America. We need to look out for each other to make this happen. You know what they say - A rising tide raises all boats.

Turn the TV off unplug your computers, save you cell phones for emergencies, stop reading propaganda or crap about "The end of the World", keep yourself from be exposed to any media for a month or so, it's a challenge........Clear your head, everyone.

call me crazy but sometimes i feel like i want crazy stuff to happen.....
everybody should have that inside of them...
life is like a game ...
when you jump,run,swim,shoot a gun. it's all fun.
problem is...we are never satisfied
people talk sh*t about awww nooo i have morals and i don't like violence but when you see people fighting you're quick to be amazed and look.
we are all caught up making somebody else the victim.
we never want to be the victim but somebody's gotta do it....
you drive a car...and you sing happily with your radio on and boom you crash.
people will SLOW DOWN TRAFFIC JUST TO LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED IN AMAZEMENT WITH BIG-O-EYES
AT THE END WE ALL GOTTA SUFFER ONE WAY OR ANOTHER stop this crap about when we're gonna get hit with nuclear weapons. lol your living right now
chilling on a computer with time to write this bull......
just because you feel like you want crazy sh*t to happen.....