T2K and the Twilight of the Modern Nation-state

[Raellus]

I recently read an article on the Hanseatic League, a confederation of trading partners that dominated the Baltic rim during the high Middle Ages, and it got me thinking how this sort of political-economic structure might be more common in the T2KU than the modern nation-state as we know it.

First off, in 2000 (and presumably beyond) dozens of nation-states more or less no longer exist. They're fractured along ethnic lines, the zones of control of occupying armies, emergent "free cities", and the fiefdoms of marauder kings. Poland is the perfect example of what this might look like. I don't see many nation-states having the resources and reach, c. 2001, to extend their control and/or project power beyond the local/provincial level. A lack of widespread access to modern communications will also hamper the ability of T2K polities to effectively govern large areas. France might be the exception that proves the rule.

On the other hand, reestablishing trade is going to be crucial to reconstruction. Protecting that trade from other latent polities or bandits will need to be a very high priority. Therefore, I can see trade alliances, involving joint protection of merchants and trade routes, between former belligerents. I can see new trade relationships trumping prior national enmities.

Everyone, from national enclave, to free city, to local feudal lords are going to need resources from elsewhere in order to survive and rebuild. They can continue to fight over such resources, losing more of their increasingly scarce fighting men (and women) and military equipment, or they can create mutually beneficial trading partnerships, using their remaining military power to protect their shared trading systems. This, to me, seems like a much more efficient and practical use of military power. Like the Hanseatic League, partner entities would work together to fight banditry and piracy. I think that these trading blocks might be more common in the decade or two after the Twilight War cools down than what we'd recognize today as countries.

What do you see as being the future of the modern nation-state in the T2KU?

[pmulcahy11b]

I think this is beside the point, but the idea of nation-states is the second worst idea that mankind ever came up with. If we want the world to survive much longer, they need to be dispensed with -- especially as we move into space. Even a casual settling of the rest of the solar system will take a marshalling of the entire planet's resources, as will moving forward in general with civilization.

Maybe a global war would give the required shock to the system.

[NanbanJim]

Marauders and stable communities aren't mutually exclusive; should we forget Letters of Marque so soon?

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by NanbanJim

Marauders and stable communities aren't mutually exclusive; should we forget Letters of Marque so soon?

You know, that's is a woefully underused avenue of play (AFAIK). They'd be overwhelmingly land-based, though.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by NanbanJim

Marauders and stable communities aren't mutually exclusive; should we forget Letters of Marque so soon?

That's a good point that I think reinforces my argument. Marauder polities already exist in canon, and IRL in places like Somalia. In both cases, such polities have superseded the nation state on a local/regional level. It is such bandit/pirate kingdoms that military-trade alliances were and would be created to combat. Back to my original example, the Hanseatic League was originally formed to provide protection to merchants, on sea and land, from piracy.

[Nowhere Man 1966]

Same good thoughts there. Also, I think in the case of the U.S., it might return to the original intent of the Constitution where the States have more power to act in their own interests much like before the Civil War. The Feds might reform but they would mainly be there to handle foreign policy, trade agreements with other nations and to fight wars.

Sorry I haven't been on too much, I lost my mother to cancer November 18th.

[Targan]

I'm sorry for your loss Nowhere Man. You have my sympathies.