I also don't know what a world war looks like in the nuclear age. Proxy wars are bad enough, to be sure, but a world war seems difficult when many nations can glass the planet.
We were closer to nuclear war in the 1960s and 1970s than we are today. Sure we don’t have it as good as they did in the ‘90s and 2000s but you wouldn’t know it from the depression and anxiety stats over time, which suggests that the geopolitical situation isn’t the main driver here.
I'm pretty sure that the research showing the risk of nuclear winter being exaggerated is specifically intended to make nuclear war "thinkable" in a way it wasn't towards the end of the Cold War. It's one small part of a broader trend in elite consensus-making over the last 10 years or so. As a member of the Posadist 4th International, I approve, of course.