Ideas for a desunited world.

~Morning Star 1337 [1]: I've actually been trying to work out a downplayed Divided States of America scenario in a manner similar to the one that you suggested. Can you elaborate on what you have in mind?

I can try. Ahem.

The idea is simple, officially there would be a "One US Policy" where the side trying to leave the US is still considered part of the US, even though they are at shadow conflicts if not war with each other. The separatists would consider themselves a separate country, but only within their boarders.

I made the China/Taiwan comparison as I think that is the scenario that matches it the closest, but I bring it up now because such a scenario would imply that the pseudo-enclave's allies would need to set up unofficial channels to communicate with it.

As for if open war contradicts the idea, it is possible that it would instead be done as a proxy war of non government agents, especially if one side lacks official government or public support for secession, or if the separatists are concentrated in ares where they have little official federal political power. Think of it like a bunch of shadow enclaves not officially acknowledged by the federal government or international bodies, but still relevant to their military and economic affairs if that makes sense.

Edited by MorningStar1337 on Jul 20th 2022 at 2:20:58 AM

Interesting. My scenario has a Shattered Union-esque Second American Civil War erupt, which ended in a stalemate, as none of the factions was able to achieve a decisive advantage. A compromise was eventually brokered with the help of international mediation that left the United States far more decentralized; I haven't decided on the specifics, but at the very least, each of the factions now forms its own subnational entity which has almost full control over its domestic policy, and although the new federal government isn't a powerless rump state, it's a far cry from its pre-ACW2 self in how much power and influence it can wield on the international stage, so much that it has to form a supranational bloc with Canada and Mexico to keep up with the other emerging suprapolities.

In theory, there is only one United States of America, but in practice every government worth its salt knows that it cannot discount the subnational entities that exist within this "union in disunion".

Edited by MarqFJA on Jul 20th 2022 at 5:20:32 PM

One thing to point out here is the existence of State National Guards. State National Guards are under dual command of Federal Government and State Government, and is typically ordered by the State Governor. These national Guard forces are not insignificant. The states with the three largest National Guard sizes are Texas, California and Pennsylvania, all of which have forces of around 20,000 personnel and have their own National Air Guard. The states/territories with the lowest National Guard members include Guam, Delaware and Virgin Islands, at around 500-2,000 members. These numbers are not insignificant. (The Belgian military has a force of 30,000, Canada 70,000 and Sweden around 30,000 for comparable numbers) This means there exists structures for each state to have its own military if everything goes to heck. I can imagine military units deserting to join up with their home state too in the event of a federal government collapse.

Yeah, I was more or less considering those as well, even if I didn't know the exact numbers.

Glad that the thread help other people in their works too.