Hugh White, Emeritus Professor of Strategic Studies at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, writing at The Conversatiopn.com, puts his view that the likelihood of World War III, with the US squaring off against China is “probably higher than the government realises, because China is harder to deter than they understand.” The war very well could go nuclear, he says. He thinks the decision to join the US or not will be based upon reflection upon past decisions, such as joining World War I (wrong), and joining World War II (right). However, that is the historian’s fallacy, since those worlds are not our own, and the past is not always the best judge of the future.
