Is Egypt an Islamic Republic in an outright theocracy sense the same way the old Iranian regime is or is it more a Pakistan situation here? On that note, who has Egypt’s UN seat? Cairo or the Sinai?
Bush vs. The Axis of Evil - TL
Cairo,since most of the World recognizes MB Egypt as legitemate Egypt.
The Islamic Republic of Egypt is under theocratic "Guided Democracy".
I could see Havana having a small Korean community of former DPRK diplomats and the like who have joined the Kims in Cuban exile, now you mentioned it. And on that note, my headcanon is that Kim Yo-Jong is in TTL’s 2024 a Professor of Computer Science in the University of Havana, owing to it being something she actually pursued in college IOTL and all that.
It was very much a good run, but all good things must come to an end.
Huh the United church doesn’t sound so bad seems like they are sane cult guys who are strangely left centered on how they do things so Korea would be fine…I hope
Very good text, but even with foreign support, I find it difficult to have the desert and mountainous Suez Peninsula become a stable state. There are currently half a million inhabitants there. Sharm el-Sheikh, the largest city, has less than 100,000 inhabitants. How many soldiers and civil servants and their families have crossed the Suez Canal?
By the way, the mission of the ''Multinational Force and Observers'' with its thousand foreign soldiers was abrogated?
en.wikipedia.org
By the way, the mission of the ''Multinational Force and Observers'' with its thousand foreign soldiers was abrogated?
Multinational Force and Observers - Wikipedia
Very good text, but even with foreign support, I find it difficult to have the desert and mountainous Suez Peninsula become a stable state. There are currently half a million inhabitants there. Sharm el-Sheikh, the largest city, has less than 100,000 inhabitants. How many soldiers and civil servants and their families have crossed the Suez Canal?
By the way, the mission of the ''Multinational Force and Observers'' with its thousand foreign soldiers was abrogated?
Multinational Force and Observers - Wikipedia
I'll go into more detail in the book version but yes, the Sinai is overcrowded but they managed to take both a lot of gold and guns with them, as well as being financially supported by the US and Israel who want a buffer to the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt's elite moved there so they took much of their wealth with them. There are about three and a half million people in the Sinai by the late 2010s, the overcrowding solved by American and (covert) Israeli government grants, along with the Moonies, Likud and the Bible Belt sponsoring the formation of Coptic Communities around Mount Sinai to plant the seeds of a Christian state in the Sinai.
The Return of the King
The Return of the King
Extract from 'Here We Go Again': How the Battle Lines of the Second Cold War Were Drawn' by Jonathon Brando
Extract from 'Here We Go Again': How the Battle Lines of the Second Cold War Were Drawn' by Jonathon Brando
The new security order in Europe was upheld in 2010, when Yanukovych, now increasingly reduced to even more of a Russian puppet than he already was, won his election with a Belarussian-style vote-fixing to ensure his victory. It was a sad confirmation of Ukraine’s fate, and would only fuel the Kremlin’s urge to push their luck yet further. On February 5th 2010, Russian troops merged at the border of Transnistria in Moldova, declaring that they would no longer accept the ‘Suppression of the Russian people’. Moldova, which had for so long clung to its neutrality to protect itself, realised the limits of such declarations in the face of dictators. On February 6th, Moldova simultaneously allowed the entrance of Russian troops into the already friendly and separatist-run government of Transnistria, as well as allowing Romanian troops into the rest of Moldova over fears that Russia would simply grab the whole lot. Not wanting to get into a shooting contest with a NATO country, Russia simply declared their incorporation of Transnistria into the Russian Federation as an isolated oblast like Kaliningrad, though one with a puppet Ukraine in the middle. Concurrently, Moldova would announce that it would seek merger with Romania pending a referendum victory on the subject, seeing as neutrality had failed and there was seen as having no benefit in remaining separate from the Romanian whole. In the subsequent referendum that May, Moldovans voted 70-30 to join Romania, though severe anger arose from the Gagauz people, a Turkish ethnic group in Moldova who were sympathetic to Moscow and had just lost their hard won autonomy rights as Romania refused to countenance regionalism in their constitution. However, without recourse or much international sympathy, they would ultimately become a looked-down-on minority from inside Romania.
One other European Muslim ethnic group that had encountered issues were the Kosovars. They had unilaterally declared independence in 2008 after NATO intervention had prevented a planned genocide taking place at the hands of the Serbian government. However, President Wellstone refused to recognise Kosovo Independence since it would be a technical violation of international laws and norms - one could not simply recognise a unilateral secession anymore than Texas could just declare they were leaving the Union one day - and Wellstone was not interested in the Americans throwing international law by the wayside again. Without America’s blessing, only Turkey, Albania and a handful of mostly secular Muslim countries recognised the new country, which remains in a state of international limbo to this day. Serbia by contrast moved closer to Russia following the takeover of Ukraine, though they knew they could ultimately do nothing against the NATO presence in Kosovo.
The last bit of Russian-inspired border changes came about in South Ossetia. Following the 2008 war, Georgia had been left in limbo with two self-declared independent states. However, eager not to set a bad example with the US having just rejected the principle of unilateral secession, Russia would resist calls in the breakoff regions to be recognised as states. However, following the taking of Transnistria, Russia instead announced that March that it would incorporate South Ossetia into the North Ossetian republic within the Russian Federation, annexing the territory in a move recognised not even by China. Abkhazia, the other breakaway republic, remains in limbo, although this is to ensure that if Georgia is ever at risk of joining NATO, the old conflict can come to life again. While Abkhazia does have Russian troops, it is also far more independently minded than the South Ossetians, and are not entirely comfortable with losing its last traces of independence.
And while not necessarily a border change, one decision that would prove deeply indicative of future changes in East Europe came with the aftermath of the 19th December 2010 Belarussian elections. Lukashenko had won in an obviously rigged fashion and this had led to scores of protests. However, things were thrown into chaos when the KGB building (Belarus not having changed the secret police’s name) in Minsk was destroyed by a truck bomb. This helped turn the protests violent, as protestors took the opportunity in the chaos. However, in the midst of all this, Russian troops along the border poured into the country, both to violently suppress the protestors and to take up stronger positions along the Polish-Lithuanian border. Russia announced that they had discovered a Polish plan to take advantage of the disruption and ‘annex’ Belarus. Tellingly, Lukashenko did not send out any message indicating his approval of the Russian intervention, although he would subsequently approve it as Russian troops began to hunker down in the country. With that, Russian troops now occupied both Belarus and Ukraine with significant collaborationist elements in both countries, mainly among older generations. The stars were aligning for Putin to announce what has put him in the running for the most influential man of the 21st Century.
[...]
When it came to the leadership of Europe, in military terms the question had grown complicated. France and Poland had grown close by dint of being the two continental EU powers with nuclear weapons. France has embarked on multiple peacekeeping missions in Africa and the Middle East and has brought Polish troops along in an effort to beef up the eastern country’s military experience. Poland spends the most of any of the NATO countries as a percentage of GDP at 4.5%, with France still in the Top Five at 2.8%. Poland’s Intermarium Bloc in the EU Parliament (a combination of the Visegrad and Baltic groups) has made it the representative of the former Communist countries of Europe and among the most hawkish on foreign policy, especially with respect to Russia, something France in its newfound pride as a military power has encouraged. Germany’s influence in the EU began to slowly decline after the Ukrainian invasion due to the anger that many Germans felt towards Chancellor Schröder, who considered Putin to be his friend. Poland went as far as to try and seek criminal charges against Schröder. In 2010, Franz Josef Jung’s CDU came to lead a Coalition government, which while definitely more Anti-Russian than Schröder’s reign, was still considered a laggard on international affairs by East Europe. But it was simply a reflection of the hole Schröder had dug the country into. Coupled with Germany’s aggressive anti-nuclear policy pursued under the Schröder-Green Coalition, Russian natural gas was used to fictitiously reduce carbon emissions when in reality the emissions would obviously be happening in Russia, but it wouldn’t be on the books in Germany and would thus help meet some of the Green targets. As such Germany ended up spending a lot of money trying to dig themselves out of the dependency hole that they neglected much else. Germany’s sluggish growth led to talks of bailing out Greece falling through, and for Greece to return to the Drachma in 2012, and Italy returning to the Lira in 2013. Despite these changes, the EU would continue to function, and with the reliability of the US having been called into question in a dangerous world, would lead to the UK narrowly voting to stay inside the EU in a referendum on the issue in 2014.
Perhaps another reason for that was that on December 29th 2012, on the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Putin would announce (from Kiev) the creation of the ‘Union of Eastern Slavic Republics’ (UESR), an obvious play on the old USSR title, but devoid of any of the Socialist characteristics of the old regime. At its inception, it was essentially a slightly more powerful EU equivalent, and not even officially declared a state until 2019. Putin would declare himself both the President of the Union as well as President of Russia, and announce the creation of a special tri-union assembly with veto power allotted to the President of each individual state to halt laws (though of course in practice it was a smokescreen for the Russian President getting everything he wanted and the Belarusian or Ukrainian President acting out of turn would have meant a very sudden trip out the window).
The move sent Putin’s approval rating up to 95% in even the opposition’s polling, as it was seen as having finally put the shame and hopelessness that Russians felt after the Yeltsin years to bed. With a feared army, a strong economy and allies in all the Anti-American parts of the world, the UESR would begin its existence as one of the pre-eminent global powers, ignorantly adored by the western Far Left and Right for its chameleon-like policies but its consistent denunciation of the West as the perverter and exploiter of the world. On January 19th 2013, just one day before the Presidential inauguration, Putin and Xi went to Almaty in Kazakhstan to sign the military agreement known as the ‘Eurasian Partnership’, an open military-alliance that flipped international affairs upside down. This alliance group has since become known as ‘The Partnership’, to whom multiple allies have joined since, including the Central Asian Republics. While it's generally known in America as ‘The Third Axis’ after the original Axis of World War Two and the ‘Axis of Evil’ in the War on Terror, this is certainly an economically and militarily unrivalled group compared to the previous iterations. As mankind grapples with the Second Cold War, one dominated not by economic but political ideology, one wonders if the defeated parties of the first Cold War are in any mood to give up soon.
Excerpt from President Putin’s New Year’s Address 2013
"My fellow Russians, Belarussians, Ukrainians, Slavs no, you are not dreaming. You are celebrating the first New Year’s in twenty years as one united family. A family that has been ripped apart many times in the past, but one that always comes together in the end. While this new Union will not mean the end of a Ukraine, Belarus, nor even the Russian Federation, it does mean an end to many things. It means an end to VISAS that divide families. An end to the barriers that block economic developments across our borders. An end to hateful division by those who sow separation among brothers. An end to the Slavic people being left to perish in what the West called ‘The Ash Heap of History’. We were treated worse than the Germans were after World War Two, turned into a devasted wasteland of poverty, destitution and hopelessness. They thought we were finished, and that our future was to be yet another outpost of a Western empire on its final collision course with China. But they were wrong. They underestimated the strength, conviction and wisdom of the Slavic people. They thought we could be bought off by trinkets, that we would put money before honour, that we would ever kneel to foreign powers. We did not kneel to Napoleon, to Hitler, and we will not kneel now to Western imperialism. Neither divided, and especially not united.
"This will be a union based upon the strengths of our people, not the failures of foreign ideologies. It will be based on our shared history, our shared religion, our shared language. We are one people, united by the certainty that we have been born in service of a great mission. To be the Third Rome, to be the defender of what is good and just in the world. To be among the highest echelon of nations, as we always have been, from Peter the Great to Gagarin, Pushkin to Pasternak, Nevsky to Zhukov. These are our ancestors, our heroes, who made us the greatest country on Earth, and we will be again. United in the service of Slavic Civilisation, not to destroy the West but merely to rebuke it. To create a Union that will outlast the Soviet Union, and lead the Russian people and all the world into the 21st Century.
"To my fellow Slavs who remember those dark days of the 1990s, remember this: those days are banished. The separation is over - we will be prosperous, united, and invincible."
Excerpt from ‘Broken Dreams: How the War on Terror Changed America’ by Linda Reins
The Wellstone Administration could scarcely have had a worse beginning to its second term. John Edwards, the vice-president, was outed as cheating on his cancer-diagnosed wife as well as impregnating another woman before covering it up with campaign funds. In one move, as Wellstone recalled, “I began the longest lame-duck term in American political history.” Despite Wellstone not being connected to the scandal directly, his popularity cratered. In addition to the foreign policy setbacks that America experienced For the 2010 midterms, the Republicans won veto-proof majorities in both House and Senate. The Republicans rejoiced, feeling their victory in the 2012 Presidential elections was now inevitable, but a look under the bonnet revealed extreme issues within the Republican Party about who would take over. Mitt Romney refused to run again, Rudy Giulliani’s abortion beliefs were even more unpalatable to an increasingly hardline party, and a shambolic campaign by Newt Gingrich became fodder for every late night host in the country. Ultimately, the one who led the pack was the one who had been on TV the most in the intervening years, and in many voters’ minds was associated with hammering Wellstone on his weakest point - foreign policy. As any fool could now see the darkening clouds over the world, Americans began to fear that the world was at risk of collapse at the hands of the seemingly insatiable dictatorships, not to mention the chaos in the Middle East. The man who ran away with the Republican field would be one John McCain.
But there was a problem - McCain was about 76 years old, about as old as Ronald Reagan was when he left office. However, perhaps motivated by the credibility he had among America’s allies due to his forcefulness and full-throated support of the War on Terror even in its least popular days, many Republicans saw a McCain Presidency as the antidote to the chaos that had overtaken the world. McCain tirelessly campaigned to prove his health was up to snuff, eventually winning the delegate race in May when his nearest opponent Sarah Palin finally surrendered. With that, it seemed like the Republicans were about to unite and clear Wellstone’s legacy from the White House. And then, all of a sudden, John McCain fell to the ground from a heart attack.
Though he survived, any talk of putting him on the ballot was done. This left the question, however, to whom would McCain’s delegates go to. Ultimately, the Republican field had been rather weak, and none of the candidates was inspiring much enthusiasm except the ones that would easily be defeated by a strong Democrat challenger. Thus as the Republican Convention was held in Miami, no one was really sure who was going to walk out the candidate. It was here that the ‘smoke filled room’ would make its comeback, dictating the bitter infighting within the Republican party between libertarians, hawks, moral majoritarians and the like. Again and again the ballots were called, but no one could come to a winner. Then one member of the team decided to make a call that no one expected, leading to a decision that no one expected, leading to a walkout on the campaign stage that no one expected. Out onto the stage of the Republican Convention walked someone no one expected to see ever again, the man who authored the greatest political comeback in American history. It was George Bush Jr.
While he liked his life as a local preacher, Bush, like many Americans, had grown anxious of the growing clouds of uncertainty around the world. This circumstance managed to greatly reverse many Americans' opinions of the man, as interviews from people like Colin Powell had managed to generally saddle Cheney and Rumsfeld with blame for the worst aspects of the War on Terror. Many Americans now yearned for a ‘tough’ leader like Bush, even though many more argued they were only in the current circumstances because of him. Bush then saw the abduction of Kim and ultimate trial, and felt even more sure that his prayers had been answered by God than before. But it wasn’t until he met fellow Texan boxer George Foreman of all people at a community fundraiser that Bush began to think about a return to political life. Foreman had famously been a world-beating heavyweight but left under the weight of his demons to become a preacher, before once again lacing up the gloves as an entirely different human being and winning the world championship again at the age of 45. Foreman joked that maybe Bush could one up him in terms of comebacks by having another go at the presidency, to which Bush laughed while silently wondering. But he didn’t have to wonder when the RNC gave him a call to almost beg him to take the candidacy slot in a Hail Mary Party-unity slot. Bush agreed, if he could suggest a Vice-President, who was ultimately accepted. As a result, Condoleeza Rice would be his Vice-Presidential candidate.
Bush’s return to a presidential ticket caused shockwaves around the world. Some, like Korea and East Europe, were happy as they saw him as more reliable, while others, like France and Germany, were not happy at all. And in Iran and Iraq, the news was met with icy silence. In America, political divisions intensified between liberals who feared Bush would start WW3 and Conservatives who felt Bush would stop America’s ‘global retreat’, while correspondingly either fearing gutted social programs to fund tax cuts to the rich on one end or hoping to undo ‘Wellstone’s socialist agenda’ on the other. Bush would renounce the ‘Neocon’ foreign policy mindset and instead embrace a ‘Reaganite Policy’ of strong but limited intervention and a clear idealistic agenda separate from a Nixonian or Kissingerian Realpolitik. Bush’s opponent would be Vice-President Hillary Clinton, who had assumed the job following the political disgrace of John Edwards. Clinton had to fight a brutal campaign inside the Democrat Party with Bernie Sanders, who was seen as the heir to the Wellstone-wing of the Democrats. This marked Bush’s second election against a Vice-President, but this time at least, he would (narrowly) win the popular vote, and pull off what only Grover Cleveland had done before and become the first non-consecutive two-term President in over one hundred years. Many blamed the close election defeat for the Democrats on China’s occupation of Hong Kong in October as tanking support for Wellstone by reminding the world of his administration’s inability to combat the spread of dictatorship. Many even suspect that China deliberately sank Hilary’s candidacy as Bush would prove so internationally unpopular that it would consolidate support to Beijing, but whatever the case, the Bush-Rice ticket had pulled off one of the biggest election shockers in history.
That Inauguration Day, once-more President Bush would officially end the ‘Break from History’ and confirm the Second Cold War.
Excerpt from George W. Bush's Second Inaugural Address
“My fellow Americans, it says in the Book of Psalms that God has appointed a time for all things. A time to be born, to fall in love, to marry, to pass on. There are times in a man’s life, when he has to do things he does not want to do, maybe even scared to do, but things he has to do nonetheless. We find ourselves in that world today. We find ourselves in a Second Cold War, against a ruthless KGB colonel, who refused to accept the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the Fall of the Evil Empire. Whose dreams of restoring the Soviet Empire risk annihilating the prosperous democracies that have risen from the ashes of tyranny. It is allied to a China that thinks that the First Cold War never ended, who occupies sovereign Korean territory after expelling its inhabitants, who threatens to turn all of East Asia into their submissive vassals. They find, around the world, allies to their cause. Their cause of fighting, subverting, and ultimately to destroy freedom. For years, their forces have grown stronger, mistaking our graciousness for weakness, our kindness for cowardice, and our setbacks for defeat. This Third Axis will stop at nothing less than the end of human flourishing and freedom, an end to civilisation as we know it.
"But while they are strong, we are stronger still. We have allies, strong allies. Allies like Japan, Germany, Israel, Iran, Korea, Poland, those whose peoples have known life under sadistic tyrants, and know why liberty is so irreplaceable. While tyranny may have its moments, it never has its triumph. The Nazis and Fascists ruled almost all of Europe for a time, until they were destroyed. Communism ruled over a third of the world, until it fell to the ovation of millions. And so shall this Third Axis, with the grace of God, meet the judgement it so richly deserves. Their lust for power will never match our love for freedom. Their desire for control will never defeat our desire for liberty. Liberty is not something only for Americans, or Europeans. It’s the right of every human being on every corner of this world, endowed by their creator with rights that tyrants may deny, but cannot erase.
"My Fellow Americans, in these uncertain times, I ask you to remember that Christmas Day in Iran. I ask you to remember the friendship, comradery and connection that our boys felt with theirs. That despite living all their lives under the brutal regime of the Ayatollah, that across continents, languages and religion, the love of life and liberty existed as firmly in their hearts as it did ours. That is what we are fighting for - we are fighting for the survival of the things we love. As God loved us, so must we love our fellow man. So must we win this Second Cold War against the forces of evil, and as long as there is strength in our body, love in our heart, and faith in our God, evil can never win. Thank you.”
Excerpt from ‘They’ll Hear From All of Us Soon’ by John Horowitz
Many rejoiced that America had regained credibility in its ‘toughness’ due to Bush’s re-election. Others feared that Bush’s re-election would simply continue the trends his first term had arguably created. The suspicion of the West that Russia and China had experienced during the War on Terror had arguably led to the creation of the Second Cold War in itself, with the ‘Eurasian Partnership’ now solidifying their alliance with the Gulf States under Saudi Arabia, with talk of formally joining the alliance due to anger over Israel’s annexation of the Jordan Valley having seemingly broken the peace process for the foreseeable future. And then there was a third position, that Bush had indeed been the author of much of this calamity. He had indeed forced the dictatorships to circle the wagons and rejuvenated their sense of purpose, but he was also the only guy who could get the world out of the mess he dragged it into. A controversial belief to be sure, but not one without high-profile defenders.
Concurrently, history has grown increasingly positive of Wellstone, and ultimately attributes most of his foreign policy mistakes merely on following the caprices of the American population at large. While he accomplished a lot in his first term, he would ultimately become a second coming of Carter, liked without being respected by a large portion of the country. In many ways Wellstone was ahead of his time on many measures, such as gay marriage, health initiatives and the like, but the thing about such men is naturally that they are only truly appreciated later. At first, America thought it could utilise the great ‘Break from History’ as the break period between the Cold Wars became known to destroy the worst dictatorships on Earth, only to realise that it made more enemies than it defeated. Then America wanted to retreat from the world, only to realise a world that it retreated from ironically became even more dangerous, including for itself. In bouncing between extremes, America has finally found peace in the middle, back to its old job as the arsenal of democracy.
Many argue that the Second Cold War was caused by the War on Terror, and that as a result mankind was pulled from the Pre-9/11 Eden and returned to the dire pits of conflict, but this is to ignore a more fundamental truth of life and of human history. The peace dividend after the Cold War was not normal, and for many parts of the world from Yugoslavia to Rwanda there was no ‘peace’ to begin with. War is not an unthinkable anomaly, for mankind’s history it has been as normal as the air it breathed and the water it drank. War is human nature, and as long as humans exist war is always only a space of time away. To create a world without war is the impossible dream, but it is dreams that motivate men to do outstanding feats of achievement. And to have an impossible dream means that those efforts will simply go on forever without end, the distant Eden, the shining city upon the hill.
And so, once more, mankind stares down the nuclear barrel. For half a century, somehow, some way, the two superpowers have resisted every urge, fixed every bug, and averted every catastrophe that nuclear weapons could unleash. There is no guarantee, however, that we will live to see an end to the Second Cold War, either by time or by apocalypse. There was no guarantee the first time either, but somehow we made it. Will the current and future leaders of the world heed the wisdom of their predecessors, and regardless of all else, come out of this standoff with our cities standing, our nations unblemished, our children alive? No matter how much we may want to know that question, no man can answer, and God is as silent as ever. As for us as historians, we know only one thing for sure from history: that given enough time, nothing is for sure.
The End
[1] Honestly, I wasn’t sure until recently about the ending but I felt that given his name was in the title, and that I am pretty sure no one had ever come up with a Bush Jr. comeback plot before, that this would be suitably thematically close the story.
Last edited:
It has been a good run, @Sorairo, but all good things must come to an end! I wish you all the best of luck in your future endeavors.
And with that, my last chapter written on the site. Feeling somewhat sick at the moment but relief surges through me that my weary head can rest.
Thank you.
Thank you.
No problem! As someone who has followed you from Footprint of Mussolini, The Death of Russia, to this timeline, I am glad for every moment that I have spent following your works and feel that you are amongst the best writers I have seen on this site, one who deserves a well-earned rest after the hard work you have put into your three TLs.
So ends this Timeline where we ended up creating the second Cold War would be a shock if this world saw ours and saw if a few decisions stoped the second Cold War in its tracks and some dictators are still out there
It has been a good run but there's a half-hopeful ending while there's a true end of an era of good things when the Break from History is over with the rebirth of the Soviet Union in the façade form of the Union of Slavic Republics.
I guess what I'm thinking about the effects of the TL, is that there will be some changes to the GTA games as these key events like the Korean battlefield would influence pop culture such as films, series, books, music, and most probably games and I wonder how it would affect the development of key TV shows such as The Simpsons, Breaking Bad, The Office, and others with a different storyline far from the OTL.
I guess what I'm thinking about the effects of the TL, is that there will be some changes to the GTA games as these key events like the Korean battlefield would influence pop culture such as films, series, books, music, and most probably games and I wonder how it would affect the development of key TV shows such as The Simpsons, Breaking Bad, The Office, and others with a different storyline far from the OTL.
Speaking of which, I assume that this is the anthem of the USR, unless Sorairo says otherwise:
For perspective,, That's Over 67 GOP Senators, and almost 300 GOP house members in the House. Congratulations to Bush for having the largest conservative mandate in America.
Last edited: