Forcon's alternate 1990s/noughties/Cold War 2.0 world-building thread.

Here is a thread for an AH universe with many similarities to ours that I came up with. All of it's a rough draft, but here is the background: 

The Middle East:
• Saddam is killed by a USAF strike during Operation Desert Storm. A power struggle between Uday and Qasay Hussein results, with the war ending in a similar fashion to OTL.
• Iraq descends into a brief ethnically-based civil war but then proceeds to collapse into a Shia south, Sunni midland, and Kurdish north.
• Turkey invades the independent Kurdish state in 1992, causing a major breakdown in relations with the West, which eventually results in Turkey withdrawing from NATO.
• Iran annexes the Shia southern Iraq throughout the early 1990s; the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia panic and US forces are invited to stay in Kuwait.
• The Arab Spring is on a smaller scale than OTL. Gaddafi is brought down by a Western invasion of Libya circa 2012 as the revolution occurs; dictatorships fall to internal rebellion across North Africa. However, Russia’s presence in Syria is enough to keep Assad in power without significant trouble.
• By 2020, the Middle East is somewhat more stable in some areas and more dangerous in others. A UN peacekeeping force is deployed in Sunni central Iraq after the rise of an IS-like entity in the noughties. Iraqi Kurdistan is under Turkish occupation, while southern Iraq is the site of a significant Iranian military presence, standing off with US and British forces in Kuwait. Central Iraq is perceived as a failed state, while northern Kurdish Iraq suffers under a brutal Turkish occupation, but southern Iraq survives in reasonable condition as part of Iran.

Europe:
• There is no August coup in 1991. As a result, Russia retains control over Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Armenia. The Central Asian States, the Baltic States, and Azerbaijan all go independent.
• In the 1990s, Russia launches military operations in Chechnya, leading to Western sanctions. The eventual result of this is Yeltsin being deposed in a hard-line coup by the military. The future rulers of Russia (Zyuganov, Putin and potentially others?) rule with rubber-stamp elections as part of an alliance between the siloviki and the military.
• NATO (or a similar Alliance without the more reluctant members) expands eastwards into Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia & Romania, all of whom are terrified of potential Russian expansionism. A joint US-British-French division is established in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a brigade in each country, an analogue to the Berlin Brigade.
• The Balkans collapses still occur, with Western and UN military interventions greatly diminishing the death toll.
• Russia seeks to regain its superpower status and compete militarily and economically with the West. The Putin-esque shenanigans that began in 2014 OTL start in the early 2000s ITTL.
• As a result of a perceived dangerous and expansionist Russia, the US retains heavy forces in Germany and most Western European nations see far fewer post-Cold War defence cuts, although budgets are slashed somewhat following the fall of the Warsaw Pact.
• With no invasion of Iraq, US-Western European ties are even stronger than OTL. Germany opposes the Libya invasion, but the US, Britain, France, Italy and Poland are all in support.
• I haven’t thought this through fully but for UK governments; Labour wins in 1992 and again in 1997, with the Tories coming to power in 2003-2010, a Tory-LibDem coalition from 2010-2015 and a Blairite Labour victory in 2015.

United States:
• Clinton is brought down by the scandal of 1998, while Al Gore becomes President and wins in 2000, solidly defeating Bush but being ineligible to run again in 2004.
• 9/11 or a similar event takes place as per OTL; the US invades Afghanistan and does it right, with major international backing. SOF forces seize key points and several light infantry divisions are flown in to get the job done. The Taliban falls fast, and a significant force is kept in place to prevent their rising up again. However, there is still an insurgency in Afghanistan with moderate casualties and a continued American presence. US forces also form a significant part of the UN forces in Sunni Iraq.
• The US takes it as its key role to defend Arabia from a potential Iranian incursion, and also focuses on deterring Turkish aggression after the country withdraws from NATO. Iran is seen as a major regional threat as per OTL.
• US politics is somewhat more moderate than nowadays OTL; there is some violence but overall less vitriol from both sides. If the financial crash of 2008 can be avoided (I don’t know how, that is absolutely not my area of expertise) then this is possible.
• McCain wins in 2004 & 2008; Obama in 2012 & 2016; the next president will be…Elizabeth Warren?

Asia:
• North Korea undergoes a coup in the 1990s and moderates somewhat, forming a closer relationship with the PRC. Though the NK government is amongst the most repressive in the world, the regime is seen as somewhat more sensible in the modern era and the country is a bit richer; it is still poor, but there aren’t any mass famines on the same scale as the 1990s.
• China is on the path to become a military and economic superpower; some argue that it already is. The military build-up and economic growth progresses as per OTL, perhaps helped by a closer relationship with Russia and Central Asia. Possible Chinese military intervention in Central Asia to protect oil pipelines from Islamic Fundamentalists?
• India is in a similar position as OTL; same with Pakistan. I don’t know enough about that region of Asia to elaborate I’m afraid.