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I know this is entering the realms of extreme speculation, with a time period far after a POD, but it's something I wanted to discuss. In our timeline, the British Empire controlled much of the Persian Gulf in the early 20th Century: a sphere of influence over southern Iran, protectorates in Kuwait, Qatar, the Trucial States and Bahrain, and an alliance with the House of Saud. Their decolonisation, partially caused by pressure from the US, saw them withdraw from the Gulf. The US stepped in to the vacuum, but due to changing times and their own anticolonial history, went for informal empire rather than empire: very close relationships with various Gulf monarchies, including propping them up with arms selling and places their own military bases everywhere.

But what if Anglo-America and the UK were always part of the same polity? What if some sort of confederal system was gradually set up between 1770s and 1830s, which had local autonomy in domestic affairs, but one co-ordinated foreign policy to dominate the world? I imagine such an entity would seek controlling the vast Middle Eastern oil reserves as a priority. Would they be able to hang on to it to the present day, with their combined and continuous military power?
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