By Hamka Rosli
GOMBAK, 17 March 2016: Will there be a third world war? A question that can be seen as relevant for most people who were anticipating an answer following the discussion on global current issues. The question was the first thing to come out from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ishtiaq Hossain, the man who gave an insight regarding the feasibility of world war three.
The speaker tonight is a political science lecturer, also known as Dr. Ishtiaq, who shared his thought with the audience who came from different backgrounds on the possibility of the third world war.
Held at Mini Auditorium, the talk was organised by Academic and Intellectual Secretariat of SRC 15/16 in collaboration with Political Science Students Association (POSSA).
He said that scholars have been talking about the probability of the third world war (WW3) since the late of 1970. It is not a new topic to be discussed but the world has been changing so fast that a new possibility is coming to be included into the chart. He added by mentioning about the so-called war on terror, against terrorism launched by George W. Bush, which had sparked another debate among scholars concerning WW3.
In his speech for almost one hour and a half, Dr. Ishtiaq personally said that there will be no third world war. His reason for having said that is due to the nuclear power possessed by many countries today than ever before.
He said, œIf nuclear weapon is ever going to be used, then there won’t be living things on this planet.”
He also mentioned about how this is all just resembling a game where nobody wants to lose in it. œIf there is a nuclear war, then nobody will win the game, said Dr. Ishtiaq.
There is a possibility of course that the war may break out by accident. In order to avoid accidental war, he said that the great powers on this planet always have a hot link with each other. Those countries will set up a system of communication to discuss all the possibilities, whether between the United State and Russia, or between Iran and other countries. They do that because that is exactly what there are afraid of, WW3.
Besides the possibility of WW3, one student did ask about the idea of ummah and its impact on the current issue. Dr. Ishtiaq gave a very simple answer saying that, œthe concept of ummah that I can understand is it exists emotionally and it does not last long.
Some research about the concept of ummah has been done, he added. The result came to be known that at emotional level Muslims do feel very close to each other, especially when an issue came out. But unfortunately, it has not been translated into real structure. He said that this  is the weaknesses of Muslims today.
The talk is seen as very useful for students who are majoring in political science due to its relevance to their field. Despite the long lecture, the talk managed to gather around 250 students.
One member of the audience said that the talk really gave some new insights about the current political issue.
œOf course it was a great topic and very useful because Dr. Ishtiaq is well-versed in the subject and his lecture tonight gave me a clearer picture about the global issue, said Firdani Adam, an alumni of political science major.***