With the arrival of Walker the U.S.’s geopolitical policies became more isolationist, more interventional and more belligerent. In the name of spreading democracy and reducing terrorist strikes on the U.S. Homeland, the American air force flew multiple covert missions in 2017 to reduce Iran’s and North Korea’s nuclear capabilities, causing the Iranians to retaliate onto US-Airbases in Iraq in the same year and the North Koreans to declare war onto South Korea in 2018. Fortunately both conflicts did not escalate into all out nuclear wars, but the sole tactical nuclear middle range missile Pyongyang was able to launch before quickly succumbing to the combined air forces of the US and South Korea killed 15 million people in Seoul and caused similar genetic havoc as the two previous nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
During Walker's second term his administration stepped up military support for Taiwan to a degree that China felt cornered: On the 22. February 2021 China officially declared that the time had come for the rebellious province to surrender to the mainland and gave the Taiwanese government 10 days to dissolve and accept a governor from the People's Republic. Instead (with plenty of reassuring nodding from the CIA), Taiwan launched a submarine based missile attack on Fuzhou, requested military assistance from the U.S. and launched the second pacific war after 1940. After 1 year of ever increasing skirmishes along the Taiwan Strait between the two Chinas the U.S. took matters in their own hand and launched a 10 day conventional ICBM attack on Peking, Hongkong, Hangzhou and Shanghai, pretty much wiping out those islands of advanced infrastructure that had developed across China over the last 3 decades. There were tense days when the world waited whether China would retaliate with a nuclear attack on the West (although none of the classic Nato countries was part of the war apart from the U.K. and Poland. The only other two nations that predictably gave their support were Kuwait and Australia), but with much of the C&C infrastructure destroyed, there were problems with the chain of command within the Chinese Armed Forces, and an armistice was haggled out that was supposed to lead to the democratization of China with the help of an U.S. approved interim government.
After the chaos of the war had settled, a similar process as in Iraq 10 years ago began that ended in similar acrimony. Tibet and Xinjiang almost simultaneously declared their independence and sought alliances with India and the Republic of Mongolia. The old communist party tried to re-establish itself with some democratic legitimacy and got re-elected by a majority of mainland Chinese but was not able to halt the rise of provincial despots and the formation of almost 80 fiefdoms with their own governments and armies who started feuding against each other, covering the continent with armed conflicts. At home Walker was of course hailed as a true blue American hero who made the courageous decision to wipe out the last remaining serious global opponent to the U.S. and secured the re-election of another Republican president in 2024. By that time the unabashed promotion of the use of fossil energy of the "Christian oil taliban" (one of the more charming nicknames of Walker's cabinet) and the alarming rise of military conflicts in Asia led to a logarithmic rise of release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere with alarming results. Starting with Tuvalu, one quarter of the inhabited Polynesian Islands in the South Pacific fell victim to a rising sea level. With Fiji losing almost all of its habitable land, this caused an unprecedented loss of habitat for 1 million Polynesians. New Zealand and Australia bore the brunt of the exodus of the pacific islanders, with Auckland and Northland alone taking up over 400.000 of the fugitives over ten years. With New Zealand's North Island now mainly consisting of a socially deprived Maori/Polynesian population, eating up a ever shrinking budget, the 3 regional councils on the South Island decided to form its own government and declared the South Island independent in 2023.
By now the impact of global warming and rising sea levels was felt globally: THe population of The Netherlands lived beneath a 5 meter dam surrounding their coast, keeping the lowlands from flooding. Bangladesh as a nation ceased to exist after the floods of 2025, wiping out most of its population. The last bits of ice in the Arctic vanished in 2030 and Greenland was slowly but surely turning into one of the most desirable places to live, with a pleasant continental climate, vasts amount of arable land an extremely selective immigration policy.....
Qaqortoq: Prologue | Aussie rules