By Jove, I really hope the Republican Party flag isn't a popular choice for replacing the ensign. I imagine we'll be seeing the result at one point?
Either way, another thing that might be interesting to see listed are military budgets. With France and Britain perhaps holding a measure more prominence without crippling war debts, the pain of rebuilding and maintaining a hefty chunk of world trade and business, coupled with wider commitments, I can imagine the numbers might look a tad different to OTL's, especially if one were to lump the Commonwealth together.
Though that in itself raises the question - given that military cooperation is a facet of Commonwealth governance, to what extent do their militaries currently cooperate?
Frankly the multipolar nature of this world is quite fascinating in such regards. Is the RN still a close contender with the USN? Has battleship doctrine been supplanted by the carrier, and how recently? How large is the United States military in a world without a Second World War? What's the situation on nuclear proliferation? Do we even know what alliance systems exist?
Hate to bombard with questions, but works like this with such excellent worldbuilding are quite fascinating.
No no! Please! I love answering these questions. It gives me a TON of good ways to further deepen the backstory.
The Republican Party flag was the runner up during the first flag debate, and is currently the leading candidate for those who are for changing the flag. When the election happens, I'll be writing a wiki article on it!
The Commonwealth Military is fully integrated for operations in Burma. Military logistics is also fully integrated, and all Commonwealth nations must make contributions for the mutual military defense fund, which the United Kingdom does not pay into. This defense fund is taken by the United Kingdom and spent solely on Commonwealth operations, most notably the Navy. The Royal Navy is the largest surface fleet on the planet, rivaled only by that of the United States, which has more aircraft carriers (18) versus the Royal Navy (16). The Royal Navy wins in tonnage due the multiple of submarines, destroyers, frigates, and other minor vessels in her fleet, and this does not count the small (but not insignificant!) navies of the other Commonwealth members.
Battleship doctrine died along with the Empire of Japan. Eager to expand into the Pacific, Japan launched an all-out attack on the American Pacific Fleet stationed at Manila, American Philippines. The war ended with the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
After the American-Japanese War, the United States became intensely focused on Asia, they landed soldiers in Vladivostok in 1949 to support the anti-Communists in the Civil War, and deployed nearly three million men between 1950 and 1965 to anti-Communist operations in China, Korea, and Vietnam - all of which produced victories. To this day, the United States positions itself as the premiere power in Asia, its main rival being the United Kingdom, which maintains a huge foothold with the Commonwealth countries, and has been laying the groundwork with China to secure a military alliance, a sign of its growing importance in Asia even as its economy suffers from low growth.
Both the United Kingdom and Soviet Union remain Superpowers, only the United States has been classified as a Hyperpower, getting a distinct economic and military advantage over the other two, but now maintaining friendly (if strained) relations with the United Kingdom, and lukewarm relations with the Soviet Union, which is showing signs that a hardliner faction is manoeuvring to replace the current Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, the reformer who has liberalised the Soviet economy, but clamped down hard on political dissent.
The United Kingdom is truly the only nation with a global presence. Her sailors and soldiers are stationed on every continent, greatly aided by the Commonwealth's close unity. The Royal Navy is responsible for protecting most marine traffic, as the United Kingdom still owns the Suez Canal. The United States is competitive in this manner because it too owns the Panama Canal. The Soviet Union truly only remains a Superpower due to its large military, large nuclear arsenal (the largest), and impressive Space programme (they are the most recent country to make a manned Lunar landing, 2015 with Luna-Korabl 28).
Nuclear proliferation is a very tricky subject, and one that is the leading danger in the world. The three Superpowers all have sizable nuclear arsenals, but so does France, Italy, Germany, Israel, South Africa, India, Korea, China, and currently Vietnam is developing nuclear weapons. There is some talk that Cambodia is as well, but this has never been confirmed nor seriously investigated by the world community. South Africa is known to have conducted tests in their territory, and has used them in localised attacks on their own people to quell dissent. The (DemRep) Congo is also currently developing nuclear weapons, and is considered to be a rouge state.
The alliance system is really muddled since the end of the Cold War. It used to simply be the United States opposing the Soviet Union, with the United Kingdom taking the side of the United States more often than not. After the end of the Cold War, with tensions officially dissolved and freedom given to the peoples of eastern Europe with the Soviet-American treaties, the focus has returned more towards the pre-Cold War era, where alliances of convenience exist and there's no true hegemonic power to barge in and make their own way. The Commonwealth and the United Nations are the only true international organisations that promote cooperation between powers, but regional systems do exist as well. The German-Belgian-Dutch-Luxembourgish Customs Union is one example of this regional cooperation, and a similar one exists in the Nordic countries (plus Finland and Estonia). Most European nations regard France with suspicion, as internationally she speaks out against human rights abuses, while still ignores the conflict with the Muslims of Algeria, which often erupt into violence, to the point where a passport is required (if you are not a Pied-Noir) from Algeria to mainland France.
Italy kinda does its own thing. The Fascists were removed from power a few years ago as the Christian Democrats finally took over as the largest party in Parliament. It has strong ties with Libya, which won independence from Italy in the 1980s, but its more of a "France-Haiti" dynamic. Libya owes Italy a ton of money, and Italy maintains a bunch of military and naval bases in the country, and has often "stepped in" when it feels some of its citizens aren't treated fairly. No one else (except France, ironically) cares about this treatment of Libya, because there's always more pressing issues to deal with, like...
The Middle East. Israel is what could be considered a cross between a military junta and a dictatorship. They are heavy handed, maintain an apartheid-style system for Muslims and the Jewish people, and is heavily armed and often clashes with Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Arabia. Israel's sole ally is South Africa, and they have sponsored radical terrorism in these countries, as well as secular partisans, anything to destabalise the current governments in power. Israel has also been linked to Kurdish separatists in Turkey, Iraq, and Syria.
Another major flashpoint globally is in Southeast Asia. Vietnam's rising status as a world power is being noticed, and her economy is growing by 7% annually. While Vietnam had always been a close U.S. ally (they helped crush the Communists,) Vietnam has been drifting towards simply going it alone, shunning the three major powers and seeking its own path, which has made it come into clashes with China, itself a growing power, that has increased military spending every year after a series of government reforms that seek to introduce fully free elections (there were still heavy stipulations aimed at ensuring Communists didn't win that dated back to the 1950s). With so many interested powers in the Pacific, it is believed to be the next source of conflict, diplomatic or otherwise.
Europe is not the quietest, either. After the collapse of the Polish communists in 1998, and the independence of Lithuania from the Soviet Union in 2003, the two have had several border clashes over the territory that Lithuania had claimed from Poland since the breakup of the German and Russian Empires. Romania also holds extant demands of Hungary, which has a sizable Romanian minority in its eastern portion of the country. There's also the perennial clashes between Serbia and Croatia, which have been fighting each other in some capacity since the 1930s (They had attempted a union, and failed, during this time). Add in Bosniaks into the mix who have never had their own state, and terrorist attacks run rampant.
The Irish Republican Army is also huge across Northern Ireland, and not even the United Kingdom is free from her own personal black mark. Much like the American South until the Civil Rights movement of the 1970s/1980s, Northern Ireland is segregated between Catholic and Protestant, and many Catholics are still jailed today in what the UN calls "politically motivated" jailings, but terrorist attacks are common in the United Kingdom, with the most recent being the bombing of a concert in Birmingham by the New Zealand singer
Lorde by the IRA which claimed the lives of 8 people and injured over a hundred. The deadliest terrorist attack to take place was done by a radical sector of the IRA, which blew up a British Airways Airbys A380 filled with with nearly 600 people as it approached London Heathrow Airport. Several hundred more died on the ground and thousands wounded. The attack caused the Republic of Ireland to launch their own war against the IRA, not wishing to be responsible for the attacks. Both the United Kingdom and Ireland struggle with the IRA today.
There's a bunch more I want to put in there, but I'll save those for another time. Hope this answered some questions but raised a ton more!!