Tani Coyote
Son of Huehuecoyotl
- Joined
- May 28, 2007
- Messages
- 15,195
After the successful reforms of Gorbachev in the 1980s and 1990s, the USSR emerged as a capitalist, democratic superpower. Independence leaders were bargained with, with many being sated by autonomy as Gorbachev implemented American-inspired federalism(in particular a bicameral legislature to balance fears by minorities of Russian domination) to manage the diverse interests within the USSR.
With the era of superpower cooperation, great peace came to the world. While Gorbachev had made deals with Reagan to prevent the expansion of NATO, this occurred in a new form. NATO was pushed to the side as the Economic and Military Cooperation Organisation(EMCO) was founded, with all of NATO and the former Eastern Bloc unified into one global power.
The United States and USSR checked and balanced eachother, but they very often worked on the basis of cooperation, not competition. When the terrorist organisation Al-Qaeda and it's allies - usually of convenience - began to stage attacks in the Turkic Belt of the USSR, and even attacked several Russian monuments.
Al-Qaeda's justification was that the USSR was the greater of two evils, as it outright occupied Muslim lands, whereas the United States had merely stationed troops there. Al-Qaeda demanded the release of all the Muslim regions of the USSR, or more deaths would ensue.
When the United States supported the USSR and began to aid it's counter-terrorist efforts, Al-Qaeda planned against the Americans as well, eventually toppling the World Trade Center towers and attacking the Pentagon as retribution for intervention.
This cascaded into a massive retaliation, however, as nearly all of the Northern regions of the world(numerous Allied client states had also joined the alliance, such as those in Africa and the Middle East), bound in an alliance established for the purposes of peace and prosperity, attacked. Soviet forces, which had been primarily focusing on counter-terrorism, soon assaulted Afghanistan with the help of the rest of the coalition. The Soviets pulled their strings - having always had good ties with the developing world - to persuade the Islamic Republic of Iran to align with EMCO, and the Iranians provided some support in purging Afghanistan of radical Sunni influences.
However, Iran refused to be the Coalition's lapdog, strengthening ties with China after Coalition forces overran Iraq, with questionable evidence of weapons of mass destruction. The Coalition would use a coup - with Israeli assistance - to bring Syria into EMCO. Iran itself would later be invaded when it developed a weapons program, the USSR and the Coalition exhausting much of their population's willingness for war in the process.
However, as the Western Coalition used inefficent tactics based on technology - though the Eastern Coalition compensated as it brought sheer firepower on it's side - they ignored the real Red Menace: China.
The Chinese had been using the War on Terror as a means of strengthening themselves. While having a large market interest with the American and Soviet economies, it nonetheless knew it had to escape attachment from them. They strengthened alliances with numerous socialist leaders around the world, all of them having a common tendency to decry EMCO as the "Third Imperialism." The "ChiCom bloc" was the name commonly given to the informal alliance the Chinese crafted with most of the undeveloped world. American culture and the actions of the USA fed many pro-Chinese sentiments, while the actions of the Soviets in the Middle East(not to mention the fact the USSR had ignored it's client states when Gorbachev adopted a "USSR first" policy, allowing them to fall under Chinese influence instead) strengthened this alliance.
Before long, a new Cold War had emerged decades after the last one. The Chinese lacked the massive nuclear arsenal that had prevented the first Cold War going hot, but through economic power, they had a deterrent against any actions against them. Accordingly, a new term was coined: MADWE - Mutually Assured Destruction of the World Economy. China's cheap products would no longer fuel the luxurious lifestyle of the Westernised world, and the Westernised world would no longer fuel the Chinese economy.
The Second Cold War was proof that the sinews of war were in fact money.
In Purple: USSR
In Light Blue: USA
In Blue: EMCO
Red: China and it's formal alliance
Blue with Red Stripes: Areas under EMCO's influence and part of it, but with strong insurgency movements, many of whom are supplied by China.
Edit: Forgot to mark the Caribbean nations. I'm sure most would be in EMCO's sphere of influence, however.
