Iran, America, & World War III
Abdullah Öcalan highlights the following methodological and geographical particularities of the Third World War: “The 'Third World War’ is a reality and its focus is geographically and culturally in the Middle East. The events in Iraq alone, as the focus of the ‘Third World War’, make it clear that this war is not about a country but about the interests and existence of the world hegemonic powers. This war can only be ended if Iran is completely neutralised, Afghanistan and Iraq are stabilised, and China and Latin America are eliminated as a threat. [...] Sometimes diplomacy will be intensified, sometimes violence. The agenda will always be intervened with the help of severe and controlled economic crises. The prioritisation of geographical areas will change continuously, but in one way or another the war will be waged in a holistic manner in many areas simultaneously.” (33) [...]
[...] The Third World War has been raging since the collapse of the Soviet Union over 30 years ago. Each part of the world is affected. Every human being is confronted with the consequences of this war, and all the power centres of capitalist modernity have mobilised their full strength for this conflict. Only the democratic forces - popular movements, anti-system forces, trade unions, parties, social organisations, institutions, associations, artists, intellectuals, etc. recognise the situation. They do so reluctantly and hesitantly. It is due to the enormous military escalation over the course of the war in Ukraine that a spade is now called a spade. The Third World War is shaping our world today. [...]
At this point, let us briefly consider the most important characteristics of World War 3:
1) Protracted, low-intensity warfare: countries such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and now also Ukraine have been shaken by wars for several decades, in the course of which both the state structures and the social fabric of the respective countries are comprehensively destroyed. State-of-the-art war technology, extensive intelligence resources, private mercenary armies, militias of a religious or fascist nature and, if necessary, the temporary deployment of large contingents of conventional troops characterise this type of warfare. This conscious strategy of state actors can be seen, for example, in the military concept ‘Resistance Operating Concept - ROC’, which was developed by the US Air Force and the military special forces of Sweden.
2) Economic wars: With the help of tariffs, import bans or even comprehensive sanctions regimes, the various warring parties try to bring each other to their knees. The aim is long term attrition. In times of a multipolar world order, however, affected states quickly look for alternative trading partners and sales markets.
3) Flexible alliances: In the Third World War, there are no rigid fronts, neither militarily, economically nor politically. Countries like the USA and Russia can fight each other in Ukraine and at the same time jointly coordinate their military activities in Syria through firmly established mechanisms. A similar principle also applies in terms of time: NATO countries were able to liberate Mosul from ISIS side by side with Iranian forces in 2017, only to have the nuclear agreement fail shortly afterwards and then to seek open confrontation with each other.
4) Media as an ideological weapon: Alongside military, political and economic means, the media is one of the most important weapons in the Third World War, with which an intense ideological battle for truth is fought. They are deliberately used by states to legitimise their own war policies and to present them as successful, while the opposing side is branded as autocratic, weak and ruthless. At the same time, with the help of their media, individual states try to enthuse their own population for war and increase their willingness to accept hardships in the form of inflation, unemployment, the dismantling of relative democracy, and austerity policies. At the same time, globally operating media monopolies such as Netflix, Facebook and Co. ensure an increasing homogenisation of cultural habits and interests.
5) Biological warfare: Chemical weapons and tactical nuclear weapons are already an integral part of the Third World War. The war in Syria, which has been ongoing for more than ten years, and Turkey’s war of occupation in Southern Kurdistan/Northern Iraq clearly show this. In the case of Ukraine, too, there are now open warnings of the use of tactical nuclear weapons. All this shows that for the states of this world, the inhibition threshold for the use of the most devastating weapon has massively decreased. In addition, epidemics like Covid19 are exploited to weaken social cohesion to the brink of total collapse through fear, insecurity and mistrust. The result is technologically monitored, socially isolated and easily controllable human masses, who visibly find it difficult to resist the war policies of their respective states. Worldwide pandemics also give opportunities for global institutions like the WHO (World Health Organization) or monopoly corporations like Amazon to increase their influence in all parts of the world, thus calling into question the meaningfulness of domestic narratives in national contexts. [...]
Wars are one of the most important forums of politics in the interest of states. On the other hand, societies and their democratic forces create political culture based on the peaceful negotiation in existing contradictions and conflicts. However, to respond to the Third World War with only a classic peace policy would be to fall short. This is because the Third World War is a conflict in which the ideological and organisational foundations of the politics of state power are being renegotiated. As shown above, in this war the nation states are not only fighting for their respective positions in the world (similar to World War I and World War II), but there is also a conflict between nation-state and globalist forces over the preservation and renewal of the capitalist status quo. Accordingly, in the Third World War, even the forces of capitalist modernity are asking the system question.
An appropriate politics of the democratic forces necessitates combining peace politics with the construction of an alternative to capitalist modernity. The Kurdistan Freedom Movement and its ideological leader Abdullah Öcalan have created a strong basis of suggestions via the system of democratic modernity. In this context, Kurdish society, the PKK and the Kurdistan Freedom Movement have been pursuing a peace policy against the destructive consequences of the Third World War on the basis of the system of democratic modernity since the early 2000s. This policy can best be observed in practice today in the revolution in Rojava and the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria. A strategy has been pursued for more than ten years to expand social self-defence and self-administration and to displace state power structures, without taking sides with either of the two states that are parties in the conflict.
from Opportunities and dangers of the Third World War by the Academy of Democratic Modernity
Third World War in Abya Yala
The Theory of Democratic Modernity as a Guide for Building a New Internationalism
Democratic Modernity Paves the Way for Democratic Socialism
The Political Thought of Abdullah Öcalan: Kurdistan, Woman's Revolution, and Democratic Confederalism
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