Eagle Guardian: The War of 2010

Once more, stuff I hadn't thought of!
forcon? 

I would think the astronauts on both sides in the ISS would have avoided conflict with each other. It would be nescessary for their own survival to work together at least to get down to earth again. If the crew landed in either an Allied mation or Russia during wartime they would likely have been interned as POWs (not the members from nations on the same side as the one they landed in, obviously), but it's hard to say.

Great story! Loved it!

I think the stage is set for Round 2 down the road. On the other hand, Europe has seen the need for a robust national defense demonstrated on a massive scale. Hopefully, NATO will mandate and enforce higher defense spending - minimum 2-2.5% of GDP.

Japan is an interesting case. They stayed out, but a weakened United States and a relatively stronger China should lead inevitably to increased Japanese defense spending - and Japan should in theory have the capability to check China single handedly.

China, of course, saw the dominance of Western technology. Expect Chinese industrial espionage, cyber capabilities, and patent theft to increase exponentially. China still isn't militarily as strong as the US, much less NATO, but they have a justifiable opportunity (hey, Russia just invaded Europe and they are on our border too) to massively increase their capabilities, both conventional and asymmetrical. Expect them to do so.

Space. The Final Frontier. The US should and probably will see the absolute necessity of space dominance. Treaties restricting the militarization of space are done. ASAT weapons will be deployed on a large scale. The US has the ability to absolutely dominate in space, but will they? Time will tell.

Ultimately, with the destruction of the Putin, Gaddhafi, and Assad regimes as well as the defeat of ISIS, the world of 2019 is probably a better place initially, but far more dangerous long term given the probability of a rearmed and pissed off Russia and a weapons race in space between the US and China (and probably Japan).

I think a lot of things have been butterflied away.

Thank you.
There's a complicated future laying ahead for so many. Russia can build tanks all they want but they'd need top quality aircraft in serious number (each of those factories got bombed a few times), a whole new navy (shipyards got whalloped) oh and so much more. Whether NATO could maintain a unity against a renewed Russian threat for a long time before complacency sets in is debateable.
China is the new big threat on the world stage. If something happens, Russia will be their lackey.
Things will be very different in this current world indeed.



Thank you.
Forcon has a story he is currently writing - alternate-timelines.proboards.com/thread/2757/duel-desert-holiday-tehran-redux - and I'm still thinking what to do next.

The thing was though was that there was a verbal ceasefire and then a written armistice. A proper peace treaty kept getting kicked into the long grass.
Russia is behaving in many ways but cheating elsewhere. So the US and NATO countries are left frustrated as to how to enforce their will on Russia. As you rightly say, they can see all this.
However, how long before the usual voices start talking of 'we need to move on, open a new chapter', 'Russia learnt its lesson', 'the more Russia is exposed to our democracy via trade, the freer things will become within' etc etc etc?