The End and Continuing Rage of World War Three

Alexander Dugin asserts that the Third World War has ended, yet continues to unfold with undiminished intensity.

Photo: Socrates Baltagiannis/Globallookpress

The Third World War has ended, yet it continues – such is the paradox confronting us today. The situation regarding the ceasefire in the Middle East remains deeply unclear due to a flood of contradictory information. On one side, Donald Trump rushed to announce that an agreement had been reached between the warring parties, congratulating humanity on averting World War Three. This declaration followed U.S. strikes on the nuclear facilities of sovereign Iran – an act entirely in line with Trump’s characteristic unpredictability.

Yet almost immediately, reports emerged that Israel had detected Iranian missile launches even after the ceasefire was supposedly declared. Iran, for its part, is sending no less confusing signals: the foreign minister announced that Tehran had agreed to a ceasefire, only to offer the perplexing clarification that this was “not a ceasefire, just a cessation of fire.” Meanwhile, Israel states its readiness to resume military operations at any moment.

In this atmosphere, there is no clarity at all as to whether the war has truly been halted. The situation is further complicated by streams of mutually exclusive information. Iran appears to still be analyzing what has occurred: Were the strikes on its military bases a warning? Did the missiles reach their targets? Which facilities were hit inside Iran and inside Israel? Are there internal divisions within the leaderships of these nations?

We are witnessing such a multitude of conflicting narratives that any hasty conclusion would be ill-advised. Has the Third World War begun, or has it already ended? Or was this merely a sudden flare-up during which new “red lines” were breached and Iran’s nuclear sites were again attacked – first by Israel, then by the United States?

In my view, none of this bodes well. We are already in a state of global war – World War Three – which, once begun, cannot simply be stopped. If we take a longer view, we see events unfolding at breakneck speed, reminiscent of “spin” in quantum mechanics – such rapid rotation of a particle that it becomes invisible to observation.

This furious pace of world events, amplified by an overwhelming surge of fake news and narratives serving specific political interests, means that World War Three both begins and ends at a dizzying speed. Sometimes it becomes impossible to say which is more present – its conclusion or its genesis – so rapid and spiraling is this motion.

Therefore, I would refrain from drawing conclusions or attempting to define the meaning of these events. Their essence can only be grasped once the process reaches its logical endpoint – and clearly, we have not yet arrived there.

What seems necessary now is to place what is happening in a broader context, to reflect on the fundamental forces that drive history, on the concept of sovereignty, and on the structures of decision-making. What we lack is a philosophy of the unfolding political spectacle. Everyone rushes to comment, to follow trends, yet philosophical reflection is entirely absent.

I believe it is now essential to take a certain distance from these developments. Perhaps only from such a vantage point will we truly come to understand what is actually taking place.