As much as we can't believe it nowadays, the Soviet Union was having severe troubles in the early 90s. What would a world with only one superpower be? Would it be more peaceful then the seemingly never-ending Cold War?
I'd give good odds on the world being in ruins. If the USSR had come apart, it certainly would not have fallen peacefully. Factions fighting each other (take the mess that was Yugoslavia, you know the one that got so bad that both superpowers had to join together to clean it up? and have that happen in Soviet Russia...), and the Soviet nuclear arsenal falling into the hands of god knows who... Call it a safe bet that a collapsing USSR, hell even just a collapsing Warsaw Pact (which did almost come to pass in the late '80s), would have pulled Western civilization down with it. We'd have got an all out nuclear war made even worse by it being completely unexpected. The closest thing to a superpower would likely be Brazil, on the count that they're out of range of Soviet missiles and not on the American target list by virtue of being an American ally. Everyone else is either too weak or would be smashed. With some of the latter being hit by both sides.As much as we can't believe it nowadays, the Soviet Union was having severe troubles in the early 90s. What would a world with only one superpower be?
Would a post-nuclear hell where the lid has been removed from every border dispute and ethnic grudge ever be more peaceful than an enforced bipolar international order that is only disrupted by the occasional proxy war? In spite of, (and likely because of), the balance of terror that has prevailed for the last seventy years, the world is more peaceful now than it has been since the dawn of civilization. It is not ideal, but then again, anything that involves people will never be 'ideal'.Would it be more peaceful then the seemingly never-ending Cold War?
Really? It's had a number of problems for a while now, and protests have rocked it since the mid 90'sAs much as we can't believe it nowadays
It might make for an interesting AH story
They haven't set the army on a protest since '91 when they sent the tanks into Red Square. the ones that make the news these days are noisy, peaceful and most of all short. And so long as they stay that way, the KGB is fine with letting the public vent. The USSR, first of the communist nations is now communist in name only. Sure they're still a police state, but since Gorbachev got his reforms through, they've been a richer one where the public doesn't give a damn about things like democracy and freedom so long as they have money in the bank, a car in the garage and food on the table. The lean years of the '80s are not forgotten but are clearly in the past. It's not a place that I'd want to live in, but it could be worse.Really? It's had a number of problems for a while now, and protests have rocked it since the mid 90's
Depends on how dystopian you want it to be. Or what point of view you use. It could work, especially if you can keep it from being a generic post-apocalyptic wasteland.Not really. It would be pretty boring. Maybe a nice boring vignette, but a full-fledged TL? Hell naw.
cool. What's GOP?I remember an AH that speculated about how the collapse of USSR would have altered US politics by stripping suburban voters away from the GOP (the theory being they voted GOP for defense but favored Democrats on domestic issues)
They haven't set the army on a protest since '91 when they sent the tanks into Red Square. the ones that make the news these days are noisy, peaceful and most of all short. And so long as they stay that way, the KGB is fine with letting the public vent. The USSR, first of the communist nations is now communist in name only. Sure they're still a police state, but since Gorbachev got his reforms through, they've been a richer one where the public doesn't give a damn about things like democracy and freedom so long as they have money in the bank, a car in the garage and food on the table. The lean years of the '80s are not forgotten but are clearly in the past. It's not a place that I'd want to live in, but it could be worse.
Hell, Portugal and Spain might have become capitalist countries after the fall of Fascism. Hard to imagine given how often the Portuguese National Salvation Junta fills headlines with their zany posturing and crackpot supervillan antics.