This article aims to demonstrate that the world may be heading towards the 3rd World War as a result of the conflict that seems insoluble, bringing together, on the one hand, the United States and its western allies and, on the other, Russia, China and their allies. What makes the possibility of World War 3 increasingly likely is the current escalation of conflict between Russia, on the one hand, and the United States, NATO, and Ukraine, on the other. Furthermore, the United States is articulating the constitution of an Asia-Pacific NATO to militarily confront China. The world is heading towards the outbreak of the 3rd World War because the proliferation of wars interests US imperialism and its war industry, which are partners in order to achieve their objectives, the first, to maintain their world hegemony and, the second, to increase its profitability from the sale of weapons. With the wars and the consequent military expenditures, US imperialism seeks to maintain the growth of its economy and achieve its geopolitical objectives of maintaining its domination in the world and, in turn, the arms industry seeks to maximize its profits with the sale of weapons to the US government and its allies. The threat of a new world war is also strengthened by the failure of the international system to ensure world peace. How to prevent the outbreak of World War 3? In order to definitively rule out new risks of the outbreak of the 3rd World War and to bring about peace on our planet, it was proposed that all peace-loving peoples and countries not aligned with the belligerents mobilize worldwide to oppose the new world order imposed by the unified global empire under the leadership of the United States, articulating in defense of a new international system capable of guaranteeing world peace.

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WORLD TOWARDS WORLD WAR 3?
Fernando Alcoforado*
This article aims to demonstrate that the world may be heading towards the 3rd World War as a
result of the conflict that seems insoluble, bringing together, on the one hand, the United States
and its western allies and, on the other, Russia, China and their allies. What makes the possibility
of World War 3 increasingly likely is the current escalation of conflict between Russia, on the
one hand, and the United States, NATO, and Ukraine, on the other. Furthermore, the United States
is articulating the constitution of an Asia-Pacific NATO to militarily confront China. The world
is heading towards the outbreak of the 3rd World War because the proliferation of wars interests
US imperialism and its war industry, which are partners in order to achieve their objectives, the
first, to maintain their world hegemony and, the second, to increase its profitability from the sale
of weapons. With the wars and the consequent military expenditures, US imperialism seeks to
maintain the growth of its economy and achieve its geopolitical objectives of maintaining its
domination in the world and, in turn, the arms industry seeks to maximize its profits with the sale
of weapons to US government and its allies. The threat of a new world war is also strengthened
by the failure of the international system to ensure world peace.
The contribution of the war industry in the birth and expansion of US imperialism
The umbilical relationship between US imperialism and the arms industry began with US military
spending in World War II, which was the main factor that contributed to pulling the US out of the
economic depression that occurred with the crash of the New York Stock Exchange in 1929 and
not civil spending on the New Deal, the economic program adopted by President Roosevelt. It
should be noted that World War II (1939-45) was the process through which the United States
emerged from economic stagnation after the New York Stock Exchange crash in 1929 to double
its national wealth in the post-war period, asserting itself as a hegemonic power of the first order
that it maintains until today. A deep relationship took place between the United States government
and the American arms industry during World War II, when the United States became an
imperialist power based on the permanent war industry and the military occupation of almost all
countries with the installation of military bases around the world [1]. It is difficult to determine
the actual number of US military bases in the world. The first reason is that there are confidential
US military bases. It is not known exactly how many there are, nor where they are located. In
addition, even publicly known bases undergo constant changes because many are activated and
deactivated according to the interest of the moment. The most recent survey shows 742 US bases
outside the United States, which include land and sea installations.
Figure 1 shows US military bases inside and outside the United States [10].
Figure 1- US military bases in the world

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Source: https://www.oladooculto.com/noticias.php?id=250
From the 2nd World War, the war and the economy based on the arms industry became the
resources par excellence used by the US government to promote the expansion of US imperialism.
Spending on the acquisition of weapons involves heavy credits that the US government will seek
from the private financial system, which means that there is a close relationship between military
spending and the increase in circulating speculative capital, establishing strong promiscuous
political relationships between the great groups of finance capital, the arms industry and the US
government. The expansion of military spending driven by the wars sponsored by US imperialism
from the 2nd World War to the present has made the military-war sector stand out in the US
economy as a whole.
The strengthening of US imperialism with the constitution of NATO
After the 2nd World War, US imperialism clashed in the Cold War with the former Soviet Union,
when this country and the United States were indirectly fighting each other. There was no direct
confrontation between them due to the risk of a destructive nuclear conflagration. In this period
of the Cold War, the United States and its European allies united in the military plan to face the
Soviet Union and its allies with the constitution of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)
in 1949 under the leadership of the United States. In turn, the Soviet Union formed a military
alliance with the socialist countries creating the Warsaw Pact. Regarding NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) [7], it is important to note that it was created in the context of the Cold War,
in 1949, with its main objective to contain the expansion of socialism in Western Europe. One of
NATO's pillars is to guarantee the security of its member countries, which can occur
diplomatically or with the use of military forces. NATO member countries provide part of their
military contingent for eventual actions of this size, since the organization does not have its own
military force.
Until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1989, NATO had 16 countries: 1) Germany; 2)
Belgium; 3) Canada; 4) Denmark; 5) Spain; 6) United States; 7) France; 8) Greece; 9) Holland;
10) Iceland; 11) Italy; 12) Luxembourg; 13) Norway; 14) Portugal; 15) Turkey; 16) United
Kingdom. To meet the geopolitical interests of the United States and the arms industry, NATO
expanded, after the end of the Soviet Union, attracting 14 more countries that were part of the
socialist system of Eastern Europe, such as Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Poland, the Czech Republic and
Romania. With the accession of these countries began the siege of Russia that would be completed
with the incorporation of Ukraine to NATO (Figure 2).
Figure 2- The siege of Russia by NATO in Europe

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Source: https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-60129112
It is worth noting that most of the operations carried out to date by NATO have been carried out
in the Northern Hemisphere, such as in Afghanistan, Kosovo, North Africa, and the Middle East,
among others. After 1990, NATO carried out the invasion of Iraq under the leadership of the
United States. There was also a US-led NATO intervention in the Bosnian War that led to the
dissolution of the former Yugoslavia in 1992. In addition to military cooperation between its
member countries, NATO also contributes to the United Nations (UN) as its armed wing
intervening in areas considered dangerous by the latter organization. In the 21st century, under
the leadership of the United States, NATO has engaged in missions in Iraq (2004) and
Afghanistan (2003), fought piracy in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, in addition to
carrying out missions during the Arab Spring, with the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in
Libya in 2011 and the attempt to overthrow President Bashar El-Assad of Syria in 2013.
The Cold War, the conflict that was established between the United States and the Soviet Union,
after the 2nd World War, and the creation of NATO became the new and continued impetus to
the North American arms industry, contributing to the strengthening of the military-industrial
complex. From the Korean War (1950) to the present day, US military expenditures amounted to
unprecedented amounts. In addition to the Korean War, the United States launched the Vietnam
War and, more recently, together with its European allies, five large-scale wars of aggression —
those in Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria — and in the process they profited from
spoils such as oil resources, while the peoples of these countries suffered terribly from imperialist
terror in all these wars of aggression. The most recent targets for the United States and its allies
have been the attempt to overthrow the Assad regimes in Syria and the Ayatollahs in Iran.
The recent attempt to incorporate Ukraine into NATO would serve the geopolitical interests of
the United States because it would complete the siege of Russia and, at the same time, of the
American arms industry, which increased its arms sales even before the Russian invasion by
strengthening the army Ukrainian with weapons and military training. Russia's invasion of
Ukraine has further increased the supply of weapons to this country and to NATO countries to
deal with a possible war with Russia. The strengthening of the Ukrainian army and the supply of
weapons explain Ukraine's military resistance towards the Russian army during the invasion of
the country. The US arms industry is making a lot of money from the war in Ukraine.
NATO's expansion into Europe to face Russia and the creation of an Asia-Pacific version of
NATO to face China
There is no doubt that there is a geopolitical interest of the United States to encircle and weaken
Russia, but another major interest in the conflict is of the arms industry because the existence of
the conflict represents a greater volume of arms and ammunition sales. Recently, the US Congress
voted on a bill called “Protect Ukraine” worth $500 million to supply Ukraine with weapons. The
same is happening with other NATO member countries. Nearly all countries in the region are
purchasing weapons, military equipment and ammunition from the US arms industry. The United
States government and its arms industry are primarily responsible for the outbreak of a new world
war because, in addition to promoting the siege of Russia in Europe with NATO, it is intending
to build an Asia-Pacific version of NATO to face China. China denounced the creation of an Asia-
Pacific version of NATO on the news.cgtn website [5].
It is quite evident the US military strategy of expanding NATO in Europe to encircle Russia and
building a new Asia-Pacific version of NATO to fight China. This is because Russia and China
constitute an obstacle to the world domination of the United States, respectively, from a military
and economic point of view. The new Asia-Pacific version of NATO also appears to face China's
defense system in Asia (Figure 3). The new Asia-Pacific version of NATO tends to intensify the
US conflict with China in the same way that NATO does with Russia.

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Figure 3- China's defense system in Asia
Source: https://www.naval.com.br/blog/2019/08/20/china-pode-vencer-militares-dos-eua-na-asia-em-
questao-de-horas-segundo-relatorio-australiano/
The risk of the outbreak of the 3rd World War is placed as a real possibility of happening,
including the use of nuclear weapons. Figure 4 presents the countries that have nuclear
weapons [8].
Figure 4- Countries with nuclear weapons
Source: https://rr.sapo.pt/especial/mundo/2022/02/28/armas-nucleares-quantas-existem-e-quantos-paises-
as-tem/274403/
It should be noted that, as of 2019, there are approximately 3,750 active nuclear warheads and
13,890 total nuclear warheads in the world [6]. There are currently 12,705 nuclear weapons
belonging to nine countries: the United States, Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom,
Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. Russia and the United States have 90% of the world's

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nuclear weapons. Together, all nuclear-armed NATO countries have 6,065 warheads, while
Russia has 5,997.
Military spending as economic, geopolitical and imperialist support for the United States
It is no coincidence that the United States is one of the countries that benefit most economically
from armed conflicts, as the largest arms exporters in the world are Americans. In addition to the
sale of ammunition and weapons, the United States also monetizes with security contracts and
military training, which makes many members of the US Congress understand wars as a machine
that generates jobs and money. Peace, for the United States, is neither desired nor pursued by its
governments because it could cost its economy dearly. The United States is the country with the
most powerful army in the world because, in addition to having the third largest army in terms of
active soldiers, it is also the one that invests the most in the armed forces [3]. The United States
invests 740 billion dollars in the army, while China, the second largest investing country, has a
budget of 178 billion dollars.
The United States also has the most advanced technology for combat and defense. Currently,
Russia has the second most powerful military force in the world. Formed in 1992, after the
dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian army was one of the most invested in recent decades.
Russia is also one of the few countries that produce its own military equipment, having the largest
number of tanks and rocket projectors among all armies in the world. China has the largest army
in the world by number of active soldiers. China is also the second most funded in the armed
forces, behind only the United States. The great development of China in recent years makes
experts project that the Chinese army will become even stronger in the coming decades.
Global military spending reached its highest level since the end of the Cold War in 2018, fueled
by rising military spending by the United States and China, the world's two largest economies,
according to figures released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) [2].
In 2018, the United States and China accounted for half of the world's military spending. This is
the highest figure since 1988. The United States accounted for 36% of total global military
spending, close to the combined spending of the next eight countries on the list, according to
Sipri. China represents 14% of global investments and in the last ten years they grew by 83%.
Since 2013, China has devoted 1.9% of its GDP to armaments. Saudi Arabia, India and France
follow them. In sixth place is Russia, which, for the first time since 2006, is no longer part of the
top five on the Sipri list. One of the reasons for the drop in Russian investments, verified since
2016, is the economic sanctions of the West due to the conflict with Ukraine, which increased its
military expenditures by 21% compared to the previous year, spending 4.8 billion dollars. In
seventh place is the United Kingdom. Germany comes in eighth place.
Figure 5 presents the highest military expenditures in the world by country [9].
Figure 5- The highest military expenditures in the world by country

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Source: https://www.brasildefato.com.br/2022/04/25/gasto-militar-mundial-bate-recorde-e-supera-us-2-
trilhoes-em-2021-aponta-relatorio
In addition to serving the geopolitical interests of the United States, military spending has also
become the means that the system began to resort to trying to prevent the outbreak of crises in the
world capitalist system and avoid the loss of profitability in the non-war economy. Public
indebtedness, with which military expenditures are associated, rose, making the United States the
most heavily armed, but also most indebted, economy in the world. The North American capitalist
economy became war-dependent [4]. Some argue that military spending is positive because it
creates demand and creates employment. This is the first argument that is usually presented to
explain the “positive” effect of the arms industry. Another argument is that government military
orders stimulate well-paid jobs in the arms industry and in the state defense structure
(administration, etc.) that result in purchases from the productive sector of the economy.
It can be said that, of all the imperialisms that have emerged throughout history, US imperialism
has committed the greatest crimes against humanity for having promoted countless wars of
aggression and for having sponsored regimes of terror such as military dictatorships deployed
through coups d'état in Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s, including Brazil. With the support
of local governments subordinate to their interests, the US government and its allies sponsored
all possible acts of state terrorism, which include illegal arrests and detentions, torture, murders,
among other actions. Thousands of people in Asia, Africa and Latin America have suffered from
these acts of state terrorism. With 102 wars in its bellicose "curriculum", the United States is
probably, in history, one of the countries most involved in military actions in the world that began
with the annexation of land from Mexico to its territory.
The birth of the unified global empire under the leadership of the United States
A new event occurred in 1975 when all the imperialist countries were unified constituting the
contemporary global unified empire represented by the G7, which is the group of the most
industrialized countries in the world, composed of Germany, Canada, United States, France, Italy,
Japan and the United Kingdom with the participation, also, of the European Union. Organizations
such as the IMF, World Bank, WTO (World Trade Organization) and NATO (North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) work articulately with the member countries of the G7 aiming at achieving
the objectives of unified global imperialism or global empire. In the Ukraine war, global unified
imperialism or global empire is present with the united actions between the United States and its
allies in the European Union to carry out economic sanctions against Russia and the supply of
weapons to Ukraine.
The unity of action of the United States and the countries of the European Union makes it evident
that a new world order is in force in the world with the global empire exercising world power
under the leadership of the United States. The inter-imperialist contradictions responsible for the
1st and 2nd World War disappeared. All imperialist countries are united in constituting the unified
imperialism or global empire that represents a concrete threat against world peace and against the
sovereignty of all countries in the world because it is a single world power, without borders, above
any capitalist power. From the above, it can be said that humanity is threatened with destruction
by the warmongering rage of the global empire under the leadership of the United States. The
chance of the outbreak of a new world war is very great. What to do in the face of this? Peace
lovers around the world need to mobilize to prevent this catastrophic World War 3 scenario from
taking place.
How to prevent the outbreak of World War 3
In order to definitively rule out new risks of the outbreak of the 3rd World War and to bring about
peace on our planet, it is necessary that all peace-loving peoples and countries not aligned with
the belligerents mobilize worldwide to oppose the new world order imposed by the global empire
unified articulating in defense of a new international system capable of guaranteeing world peace.
They should fight for the new international system to work based on a Planetary Social Contract

7. 7
democratically approved by all the peoples of the world. The Planetary Social Contract would be
the Constitution of planet Earth that would govern the relations between countries, between
human beings and between both and nature. For the elaboration of the Planetary Social Contract,
there should be the convening of a World Constituent Assembly with the participation of
representatives from all the countries of the world elected for this purpose. The Planetary Social
Contract should establish the existence of a democratic world government, a democratic World
Parliament and an International Supreme Court. This would be the way to avoid the empire of a
single country or the domination of a group of countries over the others and the anarchy of many.
This initiative would put pressure on the rulers of the belligerent countries and on their peoples
to adhere to the new international system that defends world peace.
To ensure democratic practice and governance on planet Earth, world power should be exercised
by the world Parliament that, in addition to electing the President of the world government, should
draft and approve international laws based on the Planetary Social Contract. The world Parliament
should be composed of a determined and equal number of democratically elected representatives
of each country for this purpose. The President of the World Government should be elected with
more than 50% of the votes of the World Parliament and will only exercise the command of the
World Government as long as he has the support of the majority of the parliament. If, by a majority
of the parliament, there is a need to replace the President of the World government this must be
done. The world government must have an organizational structure capable of dealing with
international relations, the military issue, the global economy, the global environment, the fight
against organized crime, among other issues, to dialogue with the world Parliament and the
countries that are part of the international system.
Parliamentarians should elect the governing body of the world Parliament, which would have an
appropriate organizational structure. The International Supreme Court should be composed of
high-level jurists from the world chosen by the world Parliament who would act for a determined
time who would elect the President of the Court to fulfill a mandate for a determined time. The
International Supreme Court should judge cases involving disputes between countries, crimes
against humanity and against nature practiced by national States and by rulers in the light of the
Planetary Social Contract, judge conflicts that exist between the world government and the world
Parliament and act as guardian of the Planetary Social Contract. The World Government will not
have its own Armed Forces and must rely on the support of the Armed Forces of the countries
that would be summoned when necessary.
Therefore, with the new international system, the UN could be restructured and have its
headquarters transferred from the United States to a peace-loving or of traditional neutrality
country such as Switzerland. These are, therefore, the measures that should be adopted in the short
term to definitively end wars in the world.
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* Fernando Alcoforado, 82, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System,
member of the Bahia Academy of Education, the SBPC- Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science and
IPB - Polytechnic Institute of Bahia, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development
from the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning,
business planning, regional planning, urban planning and energy systems, was Advisor to the Vice
President of Engineering and Technology at LIGHT S.A. Electric power distribution company from Rio de
Janeiro, Strategic Planning Coordinator of CEPED- Bahia Research and Development Center,
Undersecretary of Energy of the State of Bahia, Secretary of Planning of Salvador, is author of the books
Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial
(Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os
condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de
Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora
Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos
na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social
Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG,
Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica,
Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate
ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores
Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no
Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba,
2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV,
Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua
convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018), Como inventar o futuro para mudar o
mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019) and A humanidade ameaçada e as estratégias para sua sobrevivência
(Editora Dialética, São Paulo, 2021).