The UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Carter, made the statement in an interview with Forces News, warning that military tussling between major countries could spark a conflict that nobody wants.

Due to the sheer volume of such standoffs and disputes in various parts of the world, he concluded that “the defining condition is one of instability”.

General Carter added: “That’s not something one would have said perhaps 15 or 20 years ago, and the reason for this is the return to, what I think was called ‘great power competition’ – and was really a feature of the first decade of the last century.

“Now, I think in that competition, nobody wants to go to war in the traditional definition of the term, but of course the risk is always miscalculation and you can easily see unwarranted escalation occurring from some of the conflicts that are under way at the moment.”

In his interview, General Carter also estimated that there are 400 non-international conflicts across the globe, and said that “any of those could be the tinder that sparks some form of conflagration”.

The “superpower competition” General Carter is referring to is likely the current political grappling between the US and its rivals Russia and China.

Washington is embroiled in a precarious dispute in the oil-rich, shipping lane laden South China Sea, which has become increasingly militarised by Beijing as it looks to assert its authority over smaller nations.

Meanwhile, arms race fears with Russia have grown after US President Donald Trump abandoned the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF) treaty in 2018, which had restricted range on the countries’ ballistic missiles.

President Donald Trump announced in October 2018 that he wanted to pull the US out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF), accusing Moscow of violating the terms of the nuclear arms agreement.

As tensions around the world escalate, a former admiral also told Express.co.uk that the UK needs to invest more in its defences.

DON’T MISS:
Military cuts put Putin on war path as he sends submarines to UK [INSIGHT]
Meghan Markle’s ‘incredible’ strength after ‘great scrutiny’ praise [ANALYSIS]
Melania Trump snub: Michelle Obama is ‘better’, say school children [INSIGHT]

Lord Alan West, who served in the Falklands War, said: “I think everyone will accept that the world is more chaotic and dangerous today than it has been since the Fifties. The way you make yourself secure and prevent wars, is having hard power but we have let that slowly whittle away.

“Therefore we aren’t able to ensure stability, and someone like Putin who understands hard power, sees this purely as a weakness and he does this risky business of pushing and prodding, I don’t think he wants a war but it could happen by mistake because we are not strong enough.”

Source: Read Full Article