Possible World War 3 Stages Described By Paul Miller, Former White House National Security Council Member

The threat of an incident that could lead to a World War 3 scenario has been an ongoing topic in 2018 headlines due to comments from President Donald Trump as well as other political leaders such as North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Responding to the idea that a World War 3 might be pending, Dr. Paul Miller, former National Security Council member under former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, gave an exclusive interview to Express.

During the interview published on January 20, Miller specifically focused on explaining how a war comparable to World War 3 would potentially unfold if it also involved nuclear weapons.

If a nuclear war starts in the near future, Miller stated the first major changes would possibly make communicating over satellites or the internet impossible.

Once everyone is unable to communicate, the next stages would not necessarily involve nuclear weapons, but instead smaller options for conflict such as “a series of discrete standoff attacks with missiles and bombers” as opposed to releasing nuclear weapons right away.

However, if the conflict does not resolve, and World War 3 does unfold, it would happen slowly. Miller clarified that the greater powers of the world would not likely be “drawn into a costly, drawn-out land campaign and/or nuclear escalation” very easily.

Regardless, Miller pointed out that he could be wrong, and stated in his interview with Express that it was a guessing game about how, or if, World War 3 would unfold.

Although there are current headlines concerning North Korea being a centerpoint for nuclear war, Miller pointed to the Baltic States as a potential area where the third world war would start. Despite this, Miller also added the following.

“A war or limited military strike of some kind on the Korean Peninsula is more likely than not. War with Russia is unlikely in the short term.”

Although Miller is rarely interviewed, he often publishes his own articles on political blogs about his opinions on conflicts and wars. For example, in 2014, Miller confirmed in a self-authored piece in the Foreign Policy blog that he correctly predicted Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.

While he has had a heavy emphasis toward avoiding nuclear war in recent interviews, Miller is not against nuclear weapons. In 2015, while writing for The Federalist blog, Miller explained his views on how nuclear weapons make the world “more peaceful.”

Outside of Dr. Paul Miller, war has been a recent topic with non-political world leaders. For example, according to Reuters, Pope Francis recently stated that he believed that the world was close to nuclear war.

To emphasize his point, Pope Francis had Vatican officials pass out a photo taken by U.S. Marine Joe O’Donnell in 1945 in Nagasaki, Japan, a few days after America dropped a nuclear bomb on the city to end World War 2 on August 9.

According to NY Times, the photo depicts a young Japanese boy carrying his dead brother to the funeral pyre.

World leaders traditionally encourage a future that does not involve using nuclear weapons; however, according to a recent opinion piece in Politico by Bryan Bender and Jacqueline Klimas, the world might end up in a World War 3 situation by accident anyway.

In their opinion piece, Bender and Klimas quoted Ernest Moniz, a former Obama administration energy secretary, stating the following after the “button” controversy arose on Twitter between Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump.

“Miscalculation is now at a stage [that is] higher than probably any time since the Cuban missile crisis.”