World War Three?
by Graeme Newman (Author), S. Eardley Wilmot (Author), Robert Borden (Author)
What if the next world war does not look like the last two?
At the turn of the twentieth century, military thinkers struggled to imagine the wars that were coming. On the eve of catastrophe, some warned that new technologies, global commerce, and fragile political systems were making large‑scale conflict more likely—and more devastating—than ever before. Few listened. Fewer understood.
World War Three? revisits those moments of foresight and failure to ask a question that now confronts the twenty‑first century: have we once again misunderstood the nature of the next war?
Drawing on two remarkable but often overlooked works—Captain S. Eardley‑Wilmot’s The Next Naval War (1894) and Sir Robert Borden’s The War and the Future (1917)—this volume examines how earlier generations anticipated, experienced, and struggled to comprehend the transformation of warfare. One book speculates before disaster strikes; the other reflects from within it. Together, they offer a framework for understanding modern conflict in an age of global interdependence, precision weapons, cyber operations, and contested sea lanes.
Edited and introduced by Graeme R. Newman, World War Three? places these historical perspectives in direct conversation with contemporary dilemmas:
Can a major war be fought—or even won—without large armies on the ground?
What happens when commerce, communications, energy supplies, and undersea infrastructure become primary battlefields?
Do missiles, drones, and digital networks change the meaning of “war,” or merely its appearance?
Are today’s geopolitical crises isolated events, or symptoms of a changing world order?
From maritime chokepoints and missile warfare to economic coercion and the limits of international institutions, this book offers guided speculation grounded in history. It does not predict dates or battlefields. Instead, it explores how wars begin, how they expand, and how societies repeatedly fail to recognize their early forms.
Written for readers interested in history, strategy, international relations, and contemporary global risk, World War Three? is both a warning and an invitation—to think more clearly about the conflicts of the past before they reappear, transformed, in the future.
Is the next world war inevitable—or has it already begun under other names?
Read-Me.Org Inc. New York-Philadelphia-Australia. 2026. p.152.