It's a very difficult question. War between nations has mostly gone out of style. From Putin's stated point of view, the war in Ukraine is a police action in a

It's a very difficult question. War between nations has mostly gone out of style. From Putin's stated point of view, the war in Ukraine is a police action in a province (more or less) of Russia. Old school Russians think of Belarus, Ukraine, and Georgia as property. It's similar with Taiwan. Mainland China thinks of the island as part of the country, so they would not really see it as going to war with another country. I think it would be interesting to think about the groundwork for WWI, like the Franco-Prussian war in 1870.