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?