• Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    Superpower wars are expensive and extremely unrewarding. Neither wants them. Sometimes they may talk the talk but when it comes to dedicating the next 10 or 20 years to a constant resource drain with no chance of recovering any of that, they’ll find any excuse to get out of it.

  • CanadaPlus@futurology.today
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    9 months ago

    They know the answer already, and are probably both trying it.

    In US terminology, since that’s the language I know, they try for “competition” rather than “conflict”. The difference being whether they respect each other’s sovereignty for the most part while trying to bury the other, and don’t take straight-up military actions.

    To achieve this, you provide a long series of “offramps” - opportunities to pause and de-escalate - on the path between peace and MAD, and ensure there is no benefit to either party to do any specific escalation. Mistakes will happen, both deliberate and accidental, but they’re very unlikely to all happen at the same time, so even if things get tense there’s offramps left, and game-theoretically they will take one because nobody wants a full-scale nuclear conflict.

  • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    9 months ago

    I suspect this question assumes that all “superpowers” are the same, namely that they’re all capitalist imperialist states.

    • ares35@kbin.social
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      9 months ago

      there’s only been one, post world wars. ussr/russia has always been a wannabe–with nukes.

      • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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        9 months ago

        Yeah, OP doesn’t mention who the 2 superpowers are. Leaves us to draw our own conclusions as to who they are, and currently only one nation has any real ability to project power wherever they need it. So, other than the USA, who is a superpower?

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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          9 months ago

          I think it’s pretty clear that US doesn’t have any real ability to project power wherever they need it. US is very clearly overstretched in Ukraine and the Middle East already, and it’s only going to get worse from here. US lacks the industrial base needed for high intensity conflicts, and existing stocks of essential things like artillery shells have been depleted over the past two years.

          • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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            9 months ago

            Then we don’t actually have any superpowers. Because if the US isn’t one, none of the other countries who think they are, would even come close.

            Edit: about the artillery shells, we don’t know how many they actually have.

            • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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              9 months ago

              China is the biggest trading partner for the majority of the world, and it’s an industrial juggernaut. That’s what an actual superpower looks like. Meanwhile, we know that US has been running around pulling artillery shells from South Korea and Israel last year, and that the entire US production capacity for shells is far below the rate of fire in Ukraine. These are basic facts openly acknowledged by US officials. If US can’t even produce basic shit like artillery shells, it’s not capable of engaging in any serious conflict.

              • HikingVet@lemmy.ca
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                9 months ago

                And their nuke aresnal was found to have water in the fuel tanks.

                Not a superpower move.

                Edit: I forgot ask lemmy was on .ml and people kinda have rose tint glasses when they view authoritarian regimes on this instance.