World War II began on September 1, 1939. Eighty-seven years later, the global landscape shows eerily similar geopolitical fault lines, yet with some crucial differences that have, so far, prevented another World War.

Let us first look at how WWII broke out. On September 1, 1939, Germany, under Adolf Hitler, attacked Poland to regain claimed territories, expand eastward for “Lebensraum” (living space), and assert dominance in Europe. The Nazi ideology viewed the Slavs as an inferior people, and Poland was seen as an obstacle to Germany’s imperial ambitions. Despite signing a non-aggression pact with Poland in 1934, Hitler violated it, using a false flag operation at Gleiwitz to justify the invasion. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939) between Nazi Germany and the erstwhile Soviet Union secretly agreed to divide Poland, enabling Germany to attack without fearing Soviet resistance.

The conflict expanded when, on September 3, the UK and France declared war on Germany, honouring their alliance with Poland. The Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east on September 17, as per the pact with Germany. By October, Poland was defeated. In 1940–41, Hitler overran much of Western Europe (France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Norway). The euphoria of success made Hitler over-ambitious, following which he broke the pact with the Soviet Union In 1941 and invaded it (Operation Barbarossa), expanding the war into the East. Japan was already at war against China since 1937 and it became part of the Tripartite Pact with Germany and Italy in 1940, formally joining the Axis Powers. Reacting........

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