Are we stumbling into World War Three?

This Is Not A Drill with Gavin Esler

Podmasters

News, Society & Culture, Politics

4.9 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 6 December 2023

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Are we entering a new age of war? The number of violent conflicts in the world is increasing, and they’re lasting longer. Wars in Ukraine and Israel/Palestine threaten to merge into wider conflagrations. Autocrats and populists see chaos as a route to power. America can no longer guarantee global stability, and democracy is faltering. Gavin Esler speaks to international conflict analyst Emma Beals and Emeritus Professor of War Studies, King’s College London Sir Lawrence Freedman about the new dynamics of conflict… and whether we can avoid another global war. Support This Is Not A Drill on Patreon from just £3 a month for early, ad-free episodes and a chance to pick up some exclusive merchandise Written and presented by Gavin Esler. Produced by Robin Leeburn. Original theme music by Paul Hartnoll – https://www.orbitalofficial.com. Executive Producer Martin Bojtos. Group Editor Andrew Harrison. This Is Not A Drill is a Podmasters production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Our world has experienced great upheaval.
0:17.0	Growing crisis in food security, record heat, floods and droughts, inflation in a brutal needless war. From Ukraine to the Middle East, to the South China Sea to the continent of Africa,
0:42.4	tens of millions of lives are dominated by conflict or the threat of it breaking out. Putin's invasion has been a test for the ages, tests for America, tests for the
1:00.6	world. Would we stand for the world.
1:06.0	Would we stand for the most basic principles? Would we stand for sovereignty?
1:08.0	We stand for the right of people to live free of charity?
1:11.0	Would we stand for the defense of democracy.
1:17.0	So are we entering the new age of war?
1:20.4	This is not a drill. In the run up to the Iraq War, when Tony Blair was standing shoulder to
1:47.9	shoulder with George W Bush, I went on a battlefield awareness course organized by the British Army.
1:54.6	They wanted to avoid journalists being killed, injured or captured.
1:58.2	The most illuminating part of the course, however, came from a Royal Marines medic.
2:04.0	Someone asked him how he would know if a battlefield injury was serious.
2:09.0	The medic thought for a moment and said,
2:12.0	If it looks bad, it's bad.
2:16.1	Apply that piece of marine's wisdom to diplomacy, war and conflict right now, and it looks bad. so how bad is it really I'm Gavin
2:26.0	Esler and this is not a drill what we do know is that from the collapse of the Soviet Union through the
2:35.4	1990s until a few years ago, the number of violent conflicts around the world
2:40.4	measurably decreased. But by the 20-20s from Myanmar to West Africa to China's
2:46.6	ambitions in Taiwan and elsewhere, plus most obviously the trench warfare in Ukraine and
2:52.4	the endless battles in the Middle East,
2:55.0	war and the potential for conflict has most certainly increased.
	...

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