a third superpower during the cold war

What country could became a third superpower and leader of a third faction in a recognizable cold war at odds with both the United States and the Soviet Union and at least as powerful as the Soviet Union
 
The British Empire if it could better handle its empire and keep it together better, say imperial federation or better commonwealth? could also go with the Republic of China?
 
I'd say a Franco-British Union that attempted to keep its colonial possessions under their shared control would certainly be a third party in the Cold War.
 
Western European block led by United Kingdom and France seems most plausible. Another options are People's Republic of China or India. But you should make them much stronger so probably there should be bit earlier POD than just end of WW2.
 
I'm not sure a British empire that manages to survive would be my choice since its going to have to spend a lot of effort to keep itself together. It also seemed too weak, I mean it more or less backed down to the US doing the Suez crisis.
 
What country could became a third superpower and leader of a third faction in a recognizable cold war at odds with both the United States and the Soviet Union and at least as powerful as the Soviet Union
A Nationalist China that sufficiently ticks off the west by intervening in European colonial wars and being noncommittal to the anti-Soviet cause could potentially make for an effective third side. It could have it's own Warsaw Pact-esque sphere of influence in South East Asia.
 
How far back would it take for them to be stronger

Hard to say. At least India shouldn't be divide as India and Pakistan and someone else as first prime minister as Nehru. Perhaps Suphas Chandra Bose? China probably should suffer lesser of its several wars on 20th century and no Mao and Great Leap. But still someone such leader who makes his own Communist branch.
 
Britain is the obvious choice--it essentially was a superpower (relatively speaking) before World War II
 
I don't know that a neutral Italy would have been able to go toe to toe with the SU, but if they'd cultivated a Mediterranean/Balkan sphere of influence they could have limited the Soviet reach into that region, bringing them closer to parity.
 
The British Empire was doomed from early 1942, they had abandoned Malaya and Australia, so the PoD would have to be earlier than that.
 
Successful pan-Arabic federation. It would span two continents, have all of the oil and strong disagreements with both blocs. Give them nukes and the military capability to project deep into Africa and South Asia and you have yourself a nice little superpower.
 
Then British and commonwealth fought in a large number of post war cold war type 'policing' conflicts regardless of the state of the Empire - From Cyprus to Borneo - South Africa fought conflicts in teh southern part of the African Continent (they had the first true Amraps) - one of the reasons the SAS was recreated.

Have even closer co-operation among the commonwealth members along with no aparthide in South africa from and a more benign or none partition of India and you have your 3rd 'effective' super power - have it come to the aid of Commonwealth members who are experiancing 'red infestation' pretty much as per OTL but improved through the greater ability to project power, Logistics, political support and more importantly money.
 
  • Anglo-French Union
  • Earlier and deeper EEC integration
  • Japan from the 1980s
  • PRC not mismanaged by Maoism for 30 years

Why Japan would be on cold war against USA? You would need anyway very early POD keeping Japan strong enough that it could challenge USA or even China.
 
For a Cold War similar to IOTL, it should be ideological too. I think you need the different blocs to represent competing ideologies, otherwise its just a rehash of imperialist posturing like in 1914.

Obviously, the USA represents electoral democratic capitalism vs the Soviet Union's communism. Now IOTL Britain and Western Europe were electoral democratic capitalist and broadly allies of the USA, forming a democratic capitalist Western bloc (with many unsavoury allies in the rest of the world).

So for all the suggestions of a surviving British Empire or Franco-British Union being the third bloc with imperialism as its ideology, is European imperialism really that hostile to the USA? Would they actually be Cold War rivals or just join together to gang up on the USSR with anti-communism? As long as the Anglo-French Empire is democratic (domestically for white people) and accepts the Monroe Doctrine, such an imperialist bloc will naturally align to the US due to their shared capitalism and electoral democratic systems right? In that case you are back to a two-sided Cold War.

To get a three-sided Cold War, you need a third ideology that is hostile to both Western democratic capitalism and Soviet communism. In WW2 you had that with fascism/Nazism/Japanese militarism.

KMT China or a more powerful Maoist China is a good 'third-worldism' ideology for a third bloc. As is Islamism. Not sure about any others that could be viable enough to become a superpower.
 
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So for all the suggestions of a surviving British Empire or Franco-British Union being the third bloc with imperialism as its ideology, is European imperialism really that hostile to the USA? Would they actually be Cold War rivals or just join together to gang up on the USSR with anti-communism? As long as the Anglo-French Empire is democratic (domestically for white people) and accepts the Monroe Doctrine, such an imperialist bloc will naturally align to the US due to their shared capitalism and electoral democratic systems right? In that case you are back to a two-sided Cold War.

An Anglo French imperial block needs a pod prior to ww2.

You must remember that while USA was 'allied' to Britain and France in ww1 & ww2 there actions were very successful at breaking the western allies empires and long term strengths. If the avoid these actions you also avoid USA coming out of isolationism.

If the Anglo French blocks bounces Germany in ww2 and scares Japan off before a war they can maintain a block that is the main counter weight to the Soviet union. America though will probably maintain their isolationism and sponsor separatist and guerrillas in the other powers when and where they please.
 
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