China

[Lods]

So a Cold War setting would be fine by you?

I think we're already there.

I'm a little young to remember the Cuban Missile crisis. I think our parents shielded us a bit from news like that back in the day, but I can't think of another time when I've been as concerned about the prospect of a 'hot' war.
It's only a wrong move by someone away.

Diplomacy is always worth the effort, and I understand at some high level the Russians, Chinese and Americans are all still very much in  discussions...but the aim of those is to stop things from escalating further rather than pulling back.

There is a danger, as we've seen in Ukraine, in being unaligned.
You may end up fighting a proxy war for a Superpower where they'll supply you with arms, but essentially your on your own.
Would Putin have been so bold if Ukraine had already been part of NATO?

At the end of the day the big concern is that wars involving ground troops will prove to be very costly.
Russia is struggling to tame a corner of Ukraine.
How would their army go against the combined armies of NATO.

How difficult would it be for another country to occupy and hold control over a country as vast as Australia.
You would need a massive armed force and the logistics of resupplying that army would be a nightmare.

The options for such an attack aren't so much military ones...they're economic, cyber attacks or...perish the thought, nuclear.