RotR: The Empire Strikes Back [COMMISSION]

This is a commission from mdc01957, part of a series outlining victory scenarios regarding his Rise of the Reds cover. If you are interested in your own commission, read this post and send me a private message.

The ECA managed to defeat the Russians quickly, and now is starting to repeat the mistakes of the past. It's formed a new economic union in the form of the North Sea Customs Union, and wants to expand its membership to (defeated) Russia. While the ECA did defeat the Russians, the Russians did do a number on continental Europe, which means that the continent is now even more dependent on Britain. The glorious military victory the British had in the war has caused a massive resurgence in nationalism and right-wing populism in the UK. Distinct from its early 21st century incarnation, this form of "Britain first" thinking holds that Britain is part of Europe, specifically the brains of the operation. While Brussels hosts most of the ECA's bureaucratic buildings, the true decisions are made in London. Britain enjoys a position of power in the ECA comparable to Germany in the old EU. The British, through the ECA, are the defenders of Western Christian civilization against all threats, foreign and domestic. 

The Commonwealth has become a genuine military alliance, and includes India as the rising power in Asia. It is a much more closely-knit organization, acting in parallel with the ECA to ensure British supremacy over much of the globe. In some corners of the world, the rise of a new British Empire is feared; in others, it is welcomed, particularly in Australia, New Zealand, and of course the UK itself. In order to integrate their new empire, the British are building a Cape to Singapore maglev rail system, although unrest in the Middle East has made this a somewhat difficult proposition.

India, of course, has other ideas with the Commonwealth. Jumping off the sinking Russian ship, the Indians quickly switched sides and attacked Pakistan, which remained loyal to Moscow. India hopes that its massive population and growing economy will allow it to eventually usurp the throne of the Commonwealth from the UK, but that seems increasingly unlikely. 

America sat out the war and weakened, because the Europeans got the spoils. The North American Union went nowhere, eventually becoming as important as the Organization of American States. With the ECA filling the role of world police, the Americans have retreated from the world stage, once again adopting an isolationist stance. They remain aligned to the British, who have greater plans to create a third pillar of global dominance in the form of an Anglo-American-Canadian "Anglosphere alliance," but isolationist tendencies in Washington pull in the other direction. 

China entered war against Russia early and got bogged down in Siberia because they succeeded too quickly. This helped the ECA win, but China itself fell to internal revolution. This led to the establishment of a neutral, social democratic state. However, after about a decade of political instability, the idealistic social democracy has given way to something that, while not as bad as the old People's Republic, is definitely more corrupt, authoritarian, and corporatistic than intended. A lot of old Communist Party officials have found themselves in positions of power again, after a disingenuous recanting of the old regime's crimes. The original revolutionaries are starting to feel the pressure, and want to push back against these "negative trends which threaten freedom." 

Japan is a resurgent power, having sat out the war and taking full advantage of China's drastic fall from its hegemonic position in the Pacific. This new Japan is rather militaristic and fascistic, looking to its wartime past with a sense that "the only thing we did wrong was lose." The Japanese have scrapped Article 9, and have built up their new Army and Navy to become the major power in the Pacific, to the point that the British themselves could not challenge Japan in the region. Of course, the Japanese are rather friendlier to their Asian neighbors than their twentieth century counterparts, believing that East Asian co-prosperity is possible through economic, rather than military, dominance. Many of the Asian economies, left in shambles after the fall of China, have welcomed Japan as the replacement. While the countries aligned with Japan are now doing better than ever, this only guarantees Japanese hegemony over their governments, and the Japanese military once again finds itself having bases all over the Pacific. 

Technologically, the ECA has hegemony over everybody else. Nanotechnology gives the ECA the edge over their enemies, militarily and economically. The post-war ECA military depends heavily on nanotech-enhanced armor, powered armor and mini-mecha. The ECA has also proved during the war that it's willing to skirt the laws of war in order to ensure the defense of Western civilization, such as the use of chemical weapons up to neutron bombs. While these have not yet been used in anti-insurgent actions in Russia, there are some British politicians who call for using these "final measures" to bring peace to the continent. Of course, the Japanese, much like their counterparts two centuries ago, have been studiously observing the latest trends in European technology, and are ready to make the changes necessary in their own economy to catch up with and surpass Europe.