>so far I’m happy we haven’t had another world war

The reason for that was more that the 3-4 great empires involved in the previous two were exhausted, Japan was defeated, China was in no shape, and US vs USSR had no reason to push for one, since the Cold War era gave them plenty of breathing room, roughly half the world each.

> roughly half the world each.

Both the USSR and US fought multiple wars directly against the proxies of the other. They weren't simply hanging back and letting others do the dirty work. In most any other era one of those would have become a full blown war between the two. Both sides pushed the line of not directly involved and then both sides looked the other way versus escalating. Nukes made the alternative too much of a risk for both sides.