My take on what 2014 looks like in General Finley's
American Caesar. Naturally, the bastards come out on top.
American Caesar
A new civil war did not engulf the United States after the death of General MacArthur, leader of the White Movement and America's Caesar. In fact, what surprised everyone most of all was the lack of any major instability. The military junta which controlled the United States prior to MacArthur's death remained in control, power being shared among the heads of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The composition of this "Gang of Four" would change, and sometimes an ambitious general or admiral may reach heights that made the world think that MacArthur's successor arrived, but inevitably he would fall.
Stability would not bless the communist bloc. In 1987, the first rumblings began in the Balkans, when the socialist Balkan Union erupted into civil war when its leader, Marshal Tito, died. Unlike the United States, the Balkan Union was held together only by Tito's uniting influence, and so stability died with him. By 1992, a wave of revolutions swept the communist bloc, resulting in the overthrow of the pro-Soviet governments there. The German Democratic Republic was replaced with the German Union. The communist government of France fled to its "outer departments" in the wake of the revolts. The Soviet Union itself suffered from extreme instability, saved only by a swift military coup and a deal guaranteeing the independence of Poland. And most violently, the People's Republic of China fell to a resurgent Nationalist movement.
The British took advantage of the new European markets open to them, making lucrative deals with these new republics. But with the Soviet menace now largely neutered, the British and Americans turned on one another, as the British public increasingly found the American regime intolerable and the Americans disliked Britain's snagging of European markets.
It is now 2014, and the Anglo-American split has become the new cold war. The Americans dominate the world's more traditional autocracies, many left over from the first cold war. Imperial Japan, South Africa, Nationalist China, Nationalist Spain: all reactionary autocracies with varying levels of military dominance in domestic politics, are the quintessential American allies. America itself has actually become more presidential, but no more democratic. President Francis Underwood has taken many steps to outmaneuver his rivals in the military, and for the first time in decades, what the President says goes.
The British focus their efforts in ensuring Europe is rebuilt and doesn't slip back into communism or towards reactionary dictatorship. With the decline of the Soviet Union and the rise of the American menace, British politics has turned leftward, but they still have much distaste for the remains of the Soviet bloc. The primary issue in British politics is whether or not to continue rebuilding Europe, with the Conservatives advocating greater plans to guarantee European democracy, and Labour saying the money should stay at home for Britain's decaying social programs. The rise of the German Union as Europe's dominant economy, outside of the UK, is another cause for concern, as many British fear a German-dominated Europe.
The Soviet bloc is still around, but not doing that well. The Soviet Union itself is a troika between the Party, the KGB and the Soviet military, and right now the military is the dominant faction. The aging General Kryuchkov has, for decades, been compared to General MacArthur, and with his death imminent some fear (or eagerly await) the violent collapse of the USSR, akin to that of the Balkans. French rule over Africa is horrendously similar to the apartheid government of South Africa, and American-funded Arab nationalism and Islamism threatens to bring it down.
