World War 3.0

Abstract

Stephen Setterberg argues that World War 3.0 began in earnest in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States. The combat itself was invisible, still then restricted to the virtual realm—“a collectively unconscious war, proceeding largely unrecognised, but a war nonetheless”. Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine can be understood as the first spilling over of this broader virtual war into overt armed conflict—effectively WW3.1. Of course, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine can also be understood in conventional terms as a proxy war between great powers. However, unlike earlier proxy wars, at least on the Russian side, there is not simply an ideological justification with competing narratives, but a direct assault on reality itself: a Jewish president is a Nazi; they are protecting the people they subjugated; their enemy is a nuclear threat as they make nuclear threats; etc. This overt attack on reality testing—a technique refined on their own populace for more than a century and now deployed worldwide—is psychological warfare’s nuclear equivalent and the central weapon of WW3.0.