Would the US balkanise in the aftermath of a Nuclear war today

[GDIS Pathe]

the president survives aboard the doomsday plane, The war is WW3 between the US and friends vs Russia and China it's everything flies. The question as stated is will the US balkanise in the aftermath of a nuclear war today.

I've been a long time lurker so and this is my 1st real post so don't kill me if I screwed up

 

[riggerrob]

If communications and Trans-continental travel collapse, the USA will definitely devolve into a series of minor fiefdoms.

"The Nine Nations of North America" was published during the 1980s. It divided NA into nine different geographical regions: New England, the Old South, Prairies, Arctic, Great Southwestern Desert, Cascadia, Quebec and the Rust Belt. Most of those regions include chunks of Canada because they extend northwards across the 49th parallel.

S.M.Stirling wrote an optimistic series of sci-fi books about a post-apocalyptic USA. "Dies the Fire" is the first and best book in the series.

John Wesley Rawles has written another series of militaristic/survivalist/prepper/post-apocalyptic books.

William Forstchen has also written a couple of books: "One Second After" and "One Year Later" about the USA after a massive EMP.

 

[Magical123]

Today in 2017? No I don't think so, if you have a full scale war today between the US and Russia/China with nukes flying a la threads large parts of the populace will die, sure a lot more will die once the electricity is taken out, a heavily urbanized population dependent on electronics and electrified systems will suffer greatly heck you might have death rates of up to 85% to 90% probably less.

The US won't Balkanize though, you might have the federal government effectively lose control in some areas with riots and mass death but if there is any COG still standing and any remnant of a military and police force left any areas not under there control will be reabsorbed fairly quickly.

Will cables out and food supplies though, there is no part of the US in this particular scenario that would have the cohesion and self sustaining resources and identity to form there own post-nuke state.

Now if the federal government is effectively destroyed then there won't even be successor states if any nation of coalition of nations can totally destroy the USG then there won't much of an America left to divvy up.

 

[Berkeley2017]

Against Russia defintely. The US will suffer hundreds of nuclear hits, probably about 90% population killed and what's left won't have any ability to communicate with each other and function as one.

Against China, not so sure. The US will probably lose about 20-30 major cities, but won't be close to being annihilated. I'm not sure if the US can absorb the shock of losing that many cities.

 

[Mikestone8]

Not permanently.

The valleys of the Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri form a natural unit which will have water communication even if the highways are unusable. And once that has pulled itself together, the "Restored United States" [1] would sooner or later reabsorb the Mountain States and whatever was left of the east and west coasts.


[1] I suspect that David Brin's Postman was on or near the mark in putting his imaginary government in Minnesota.

 

[GDIS Pathe]

Remember the OP the president survives and just to throw it in their roughly 1/3rds of congress and most of the supreme court does as well

 

[Dunning Kruger]

Remember the OP the president survives and just to throw it in their roughly 1/3rds of congress and most of the supreme court does as well

The President's survival is kind of irrelevant after hostilities cease. The issue is how effective can you administer a region. If you are unable to communicate or distribute resources (energy, food, security, etc) then you cannot administer and separation becomes inevitable.

The states' rights issues might flip to states' responsibilities with the states begging for help rather than fighting for autonomy.

 

[Magical123]

Against Russia defintely. The US will suffer hundreds of nuclear hits, probably about 90% population killed and what's left won't have any ability to communicate with each other and function as one.

Against China, not so sure. The US will probably lose about 20-30 major cities, but won't be close to being annihilated. I'm not sure if the US can absorb the shock of losing that many cities.

The Chinese have modernized the nuclear force and have multiple missiles per nuke in at least a few hundred of their missiles with more in the way even if not in conjunction with Russia they would be able to do a tremendous amount of damage to the United States.