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I always figured they would work better less as stereotypes of modern political figures and beliefs, but just more as kind of the more well-trodden ground of ruthless, heartless corrupt profiteers. The kind who'd be just happy with the idea of strip-mining the planet of Naboo for profit if their...

I like this idea. I also have always been intrigued by the idea of alternate Gungans in general. In particular, I have always thought it might be interesting if they were portrayed as a competent, devoted warrior race rather than what struck me as kind of a parade of idiocy and weird vaguely...

During the Apartheid Era, plenty of black musicians came to play (particularly at Sun City in Boputhatswana) in South Africa and were granted the title of "honorary whites", similar practices happened in Rhodesia which wasn't as harsh in its implementation of racial policy as Apartheid South...

This kind of ties into my thoughts on how fascism and racial supremacism became intertwined. Europe as a whole was deeply entrenched in racist ideology at this time, regardless of fascism. To change that you really need to achieve some pretty drastic shifts in how people think.

That actually is not true. According to Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, the Soviet spies who were responsible for the operations in the Manhattan Project repeatedly failed to turn Robert Oppenheimer, they actually considered the failure to get him as one of their biggest...

I can't imagine the lot of the Palestinians would improve all that much. The problem with that is that as soon as Egypt acquired it, the impetus would be on them to create a Palestinian state, something that would likely be specifically forbidden in any treaty that transferred Gaza to...

We had a very interesting discussion on this very same matter not too long ago, though I cannot find the thread. Basically the conclusions of the thread seemed to be that if Bin Laden was captured by Pakistan (suffice to say the ISI probably cannot be trusted), it would probably have to be a...

That's true, but the Russo-Armenian friendship is one of those deeply-held things that transcends theological differences. To sort of frame the issue a bit, one of the first countries to recognize the Armenian Genocide (whether it actually was one or not is another query) was the Soviet Union...

Aye, the Russian-Azeri relationship isn't entirely antagonistic, the Russian community in Azerbaijan is the largest in the Caucasus countries (a legacy of Imperial and later Soviet settlement policy), and Russia's support for Armenia during the war was not present from the beginning. Not to...

Well that has its background, IMHO, in the traditionally close ties between Russia and Armenia as two Orthodox Christian countries (with Russia often historically providing support to the Armenians to counter the Ottomans in the region), not to mention, as Plumber brings up, the ongoing...

Angola probably has the best chance of them all. Nigeria and the Congo, while they have great *potential*, are nonetheless sort of the classic cases of what goes wrong in the process of creating an independent state of a formerly colonized land. Huge territory, large amount of differing and...

Armenia did not want to stay, neither did Georgia. Azerbaijan like the Central Asian SSRs, had over 90% of the Azeri populace vote to remain in association with the USSR in some form (albeit as a federalized system).

At least in theory, the Soviet system was in such a state even by the late 80's/early 90's that it probably could have limped along for at least another decade or so, even with its moribund economy and the substantial threat of a hard currency shortage (and consequent economic turmoil) down the...

That and perhaps more damningly, any instability in surrounding states is going to have averse consequences for Libya's own chances at development. It's hard to be the island of stability in a sea of turmoil.

Compelling as the idea sounds, what do you think would motivate Haiti, one of the oldest independent states in the Americas, to join English-speaking Canada? Creole-speaking black Haitians with more shared cultural heritage with France and West Africa than with Canada don't seem a likely match...

Stalin wasn't particularly known for being a fine speaker either. It's quite possible that his leadership could be of the power-behind-the-throne variety.

I don't think Prussia could realistically ask for these, they have no way of getting to them, and there is certainly the possibility of a diplomatic intervention by Britain to avoid having Prussian territory on the Strait of Gibraltar And truthfully, what would Prussia gain from such...

Not at all implausible, though the diplomatic circumstances that lead to the Alaska Purchase were because of the strained relationship between Russia and Britain. It was, in effect, a total win-win situation for the Russian Empire: they got to make a profit offloading a fairly worthless colony...

Or at least prior to a massive wave of American colonization as the Southwest presumably dries up and sends an exodus of tens of millions of people northward :p

Yeah, there was a reason Reagan was the Teflon President, a less PR-savvy president could easily have seen an impeachment and possibly even a full removal from office over something like Iran-Contra. Something like this, Reagan can just pull out some perfect pitch joke and everyone can laugh...