Oh yes at least I am reading the TL. And the American sections are very interesting and well developed (the European parts had some fails but that's an issue that other people has brought in the thread so I won't talk about this here).
Bush vs. The Axis of Evil - TL
Glad to know others sees it's appeal. But lets keeps talk of it to that thread.
I asked this because I want to learn how to write a modern-day 2ACW story that is not culture war porn and/or internet revenge fantasies.
Good luck with that. If you ask me any Second American Civil War is going to be Chinese dynastic collapse than the first civil war. Dozens of factions with the only thing mattering being power and influence. Assuming the US does not permanently fall apart of course.
You just got a good deal on hints for free from @Mitridates the Great
Just finished this TL. How ironic how Bush Jr. sees his second presidency as the start of the New Cold War while his father ended the first. Comes at a full circle.
Comparing to OTL 2024, the world became a much more dangerous place earlier (ATL 2010). OTL, tensions flared between 2008-2014 (historian's say 2014 is the date of the New Cold War; some put in 2008 with Georgia while others put in 2013 with the Syria red line).
There's always a tradeoff isn't there. Big wars are accelorators...
Gonna mention some OTL historical context here:
Some would even say the 2003 invasion of Iraq kicked off the New Cold War because it ended the 9/11 courtship of the international community with the United States. What good relations with Russia and China formed after 9/11 somehow became soured. Then came 2008 with the Russian invasion of Georgia in the final days of the Bush administration. Obama attempted the Russian reset in 2009 but soured again in 2011 when NATO intervened on the side of the NTC during the Libyan Civil War. It worsened in 2013 with the Syria Red Line, 2014 with the Crimean annexation and MH17 shoot-down, and in 2015 with the Russian intervention in Syria.
The rest is history.
Well you certainly say wars have consequences. Huge consequences.
Russia, Belarus and Ukraine uniting into single nation will be called Vostokoslavia.
Because all three of them are East Slavic and Russia would use this to unite all east slavic people into one nation.
Why would you say that? There’s plenty of could be factions that could be earnest in reuniting America. I mean China was split into dozens of factions/warlords/foreign puppets for 33 years and still recovered. Its replacement was very authoritarian but it also came from a millennia of authoritarianism. China also never ever permanently collapsed despite doing that for a millennia (honestly the Chinese dynasty is not a good analogue). Also making it sound like it’ll permanently fall is unlikely since the Soviet Union collapsed but the core of Russia never fell. As long as they’re an earnest faction along with assistance with NATO, and the core states having a sufficient desire to return to the union the U.S. won’t ever permanently fall.
I say this on account that unlike China which was dealing with about two centuries of decline before fully falling into civil war, this US civil war would be far more immediate and far more devastating not just to the US but to the entire world since they will be dealing with millions of refugees not just from the US but from all over the world as the worlds largest economy and agriculture producer falls apart.
Really what I am saying is that if the US falls like most 21st century Second Civil War scenarios have it fall, the consequences would be far worse than they usually occur in said scenarios.
Really I would say it would be closer to the fall o Rome than China.
Really what I am saying is that if the US falls like most 21st century Second Civil War scenarios have it fall, the consequences would be far worse than they usually occur in said scenarios.
Really I would say it would be closer to the fall o Rome than China.
America is practically the fulcrum of the current global system, and has been that for roughly a century.
Since the cataclysm of WWI, the American government's choices have always had broader global ramifications. In the 1920s, America's decision to cut off immigration, have an unregulated financial market, retreat back into isolationism, and do nothing about a crisis of overproduction contributed massively to the global Great Depression and the second major cataclysm of the 20th century.
After that, Americans leaders decided that their country must be involved in global affairs, for better or worse. Whether it was free trade agreements, CIA Coups, the International Criminal Court, or Botswanan kids watching Steven Spielberg movies, no nation in history has had such a global, all-encompassing, and powerful reach in world affairs as America.
A world with Pax Americana is the only one all humans have a memory of. If it comes to an end, either due to an American Civil War or an American retreat, the entire world would have to rewrite its rules and expectations of what is normal or not.