The world-war provocateur phenomenon

Introduction

In all of recorded history only three men have willfully provoked the planetary emergency known as a world war. At each of these pivotal moments humanity stood shocked as an upstart warlord struck out to conquer the world. Employing the modern-age capacity for globally projected political power, he launched a revolutionary military campaign across three continents. Scoring devastating attacks against the world’s most powerful nations, this suicidal emperor provoked a global war that plunged civilization into a crisis of unprecedented gravity.

During the pre-nuclear age, the rare distinction of world-war provocateur belonged solely to the two modern conquerors of continental Europe. During the post-nuclear age, this abominable designation befits only one man, the leader of the invisible empire that has waged a successful 15-year terrorist campaign against the 21^st century's lone superpower.

This conspicuous parallelism between Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler and Osama bin Laden underscores a far greater collective coincidence: the career timelines of history's three world-war provocateurs share in common a highly unique sequence of earthshaking milestones, constituting a parallel career that spans twenty-seven years.