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[KingBacon]

America deploys its Ion Cannon, sinking the crimea into the black sea. Russia uses its anti-satellite missiles to destroy the Ion Cannon.

The Plot of "gravity" then ensues.

Well damn, and here I was hoping you'd go for style points with C&C rather than topicality.

We all know Eastern Europe is securely in the grasp of NOD.

[LordBucket]

Make your own predictions!

The US continues to invade small, defenseless countries every decade or so. Russia continues to be annoyed by this, and rattles their sabres, but is unwilling to commit to nuclear war and thereby possibly end modern civiliztion over it. Thank you, Russia. China decides it would rather be a first world nation rather than go to war, so generally doesn't get involved and does its own thing, eventually passing the US in the space race and embarrassing us a great deal. North Korea loses steam and Kim Jong's son turns out to basically be an ok guy despite having had a weird childhood, so does his best to maintain appearances but his heart isn't really into playing the bad guy. The US realizes this and declares China The Bad Guy(tm) for surpasing us is space, just like how when Russia put up Sputnik. North Korea continues to receive financial aid from the US, and generally becomes a nicer place, though it will take until the next leader replaces Kim Jong's son for it to really be apparent. France snubs everyone in the UN. The US freaks out and bans french fries. Again. This amuses the French to no end.

Then somebody builds the Matrix and everyone end up too busy having cyber sex with each other to care about world politics anymore.

[Arcvasti]

Make your own predictions!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The US continues to invade small, defenseless countries every decade or so. Russia continues to be annoyed by this, and rattles their sabres, but is unwilling to commit to nuclear war and thereby possibly end modern civiliztion over it. Thank you, Russia. China decides it would rather be a first world nation rather than go to war, so generally doesn't get involved and does its own thing, eventually passing the US in the space race and embarrassing us a great deal. North Korea loses steam and Kim Jong's son turns out to basically be an ok guy despite having had a weird childhood, so does his best to maintain appearances but his heart isn't really into playing the bad guy. The US realizes this and declares China The Bad Guy(tm) for surpasing us is space, just like how when Russia put up Sputnik. North Korea continues to receive financial aid from the US, and generally becomes a nicer place, though it will take until the next leader replaces Kim Jong's son for it to really be apparent. France snubs everyone in the UN. The US freaks out and bans french fries. Again. This amuses the French to no end.

Then somebody builds the Matrix and everyone end up too busy having cyber sex with each other to care about world politics anymore.

That sounds spot on. All of it. Now all that needs to happen is for there to be a Hetalia thing about this and it would be perfect.

[FearfulJesuit]

Yeah, Putin isn't going to end modern civilization by launching nukes. He's way too competent and sane to do that. But he may threaten it if he thinks it'll get him things.

[mainiac]

Prediction: the Russian Dota players aren't going anywhere.

[Cheedows]

Prediction: the Russian Dota players aren't going anywhere.

Accusations of Russian DOTA players cheating prompts western military intervention.

[AndClayton]

I can agree with most of all your points, especially the one concerning Russia's secret (read: not so secret) harboring of NOD forces.

But in all seriousness, look back at WW1 and WW2 and some of the reasons that went into them starting. I know there are a plethora of reasons for each, but if Russia does become a land grabbing machine like Germany before WW2, I could see NATO taking drastic measures.

ESPECIALLY if Russia decides to dip into any Middle Eastern country with even a hint of oil reserves. 

[Cheedows]

But Crimea isn't really land grabbing, it's an autonomous state that already supports Russia.

[Arcvasti]

I can agree with most of all your points, especially the one concerning Russia's secret (read: not so secret) harboring of NOD forces.

But in all seriousness, look back at WW1 and WW2 and some of the reasons that went into them starting. I know there are a plethora of reasons for each, but if Russia does become a land grabbing machine like Germany before WW2, I could see NATO taking drastic measures.

ESPECIALLY if Russia decides to dip into any Middle Eastern country with even a hint of oil reserves.

I could definitely see NATO taking drastic measures in that case. But I just don't think that it'll draw in North Korea and China. If Putin does decide to aggravate NATO, well guess who's just alienated a decent portion of the European Union [Hint:Its Russia]. On the other hand, don't we have this whole "Euro debt crisis" going on? That'll probably affect something somewhere.

[AndClayton]

I could be wrong so please correct me if so, but doesn't the US owe a staggering amount of money to China? I even read somewhere that most big US companies back their stocks in Chinese currency because it's much more stable than USD.

I imagine this could play a big part, along with any Euro debt, too.

China has more than enough reason to ally with anyone even remotely going against the US and it's affiliates.

[mainiac]

I could be wrong so please correct me if so, but doesn't the US owe a staggering amount of money to China? I even read somewhere that most big US companies back their stocks in Chinese currency because it's much more stable than USD.

I imagine this could play a big part, along with any Euro debt, too.

China has more than enough reason to ally with anyone even remotely going against the US and it's affiliates.

"Staggering" is hardly the term I'd use.  But China has a lot of T-notes because China needs to have a lot of T-notes to sustain their export strategy (although they are moving away from the currency manipulation for the past two years).  It's not like China can blackmail the US or anything.

But politicians talk to each other not economists so that the meme "china owns us" has gotten around washington and even leaked into the public conciousness.  But it's basically the exact opposite of what you are told.

[Flying Dice]

I could be wrong so please correct me if so, but doesn't the US owe a staggering amount of money to China? I even read somewhere that most big US companies back their stocks in Chinese currency because it's much more stable than USD.

I imagine this could play a big part, along with any Euro debt, too.

China has more than enough reason to ally with anyone even remotely going against the US and it's affiliates.

"Staggering" is hardly the term I'd use.  But China has a lot of T-notes because China needs to have a lot of T-notes to sustain their export strategy (although they are moving away from the currency manipulation for the past two years).  It's not like China can blackmail the US or anything.

But politicians talk to each other not economists so that the meme "china owns us" has gotten around washington and even leaked into the public conciousness.  But it's basically the exact opposite of what you are told.

This, pretty much. The Chinese economy is heavily dependent on the U.S.; even political stupidity wouldn't be enough for them to break that sharply.

It's flawed thinking to approach it from the perspective of "China has the U.S.' balls in a vice"; if anything happens to the U.S., all of that debt becomes meaningless (and thus a massive wasted investment), China loses their largest export market (the U.S., IIRC, accounts for something like 17-18% of Chinese exports, and the only other trade partner that comes close to that is Hong Kong), and Chinese economic growth takes a very substantial setback. That aside, the percentage of the U.S. debt held in China? Around 6%; it's something like 1.1-1.3 trillion USD, out of (for the moment) 17.4 trillion USD, of which roughly 50% is foreign-held. Granted, it's staggering from the layman's perspective (aka "That's how many zeroes!?"), but it's less substantial if you look at the whole picture.

To be perfectly honest, this habit that certain segments of the political realm have of painting China and the U.S. as titans poised to clash is... incredibly archaic, not least because of the misconception that outright warfare or the threat thereof is the only way in which states can meaningfully compete with one another.

Put simply, none of the major players on the international stage want large-scale wars, because they are all more-or-less sane individuals representing more-or-less sane polities, all of which have vested interests in maintaining something approximating the status quo of power and profit for themselves and those under them. The age of ideological war on a grand scale is over, even if some people don't want to admit it.

[10ebbor10]

Iran uses these events as cover to attack Israel

Well, probably the other way around really. Israel has nukes and a better equipped, larger army.

[Max White]

1) Russia and China ally bringing along North Korea.

Why? Why would China turn its back on the USA? Do you know how much money the States owes China? They want to collect the interest on that debt. If they declare war, the US has pretty good cause to stop paying without people loosing all trust in the USD. China will not go against its debt slave in the foreseeable future.

2) The US is the first country to attack one of those countries and is also the first country to make a huge blunder costing a lot of soldiers. The US tries to blame it on a NATO country.

Technically the first strike has already been made by Russia. While it is fun to say "Lolmerica will charge in and mess everything up!" it is a pretty long shot.

3) North Korea nukes either Japan or South Korea.

Believe it or not launching a nuke isn't an instant kill, as both these nations have anti-ballistic missiles in range. Dropping one in by plane would be even harder. NKs rocket program is a joke, so they could launch their nukes all they like, the only fallout will be the massive land force that washed over their nation.

4) Germany, having the strongest military in NATO, has a very successful campaign in Western Europe and becomes a super-power (or close to one) again.

How does having a strong military = become super power? Unless they are planning to use that military power to annex somebody, the upkeep costs are counter productive.

5) The UK, Sweden and the US Alaska are invaded.

Alaska maybe. The UK would require getting past all of Europe, and I wish Putin all the best with that, but it will never happen. Sweden by a stretch, if that was for some reason a very significant target, but I understand the focus would be on any non-Russia country with a large amount of ethnic Russians. Sweden for the Swedes!

6) Russia is nuked at least 3 times.

Why do you even get these figures? By whom? Why? When? This is the least useful prediction so far.

7) North Korea is the first to use nukes, the US the second, Russia the third, China the last.

Does NK even have nukes? As in ones that count for more than a high school physics project? Also how about UK, France, India, how about Israel?

(These may annoy you, insult your intelligence, or bother you. Correct me on any facts(?) I may have gotten wrong )

What facts? These are predictions, far flung from facts.


I personally predict economic warfare on Russia, they give in and pull out of Ukraine pretty quickly, the only question that remains is whether Ukraine itself stays whole or splits.


EDIT:

We'll see how Putin reacts in the next few weeks. Putin is a very odd duck, because he's very likely one of the most levelheaded and intelligent leaders in the world right now, and competent evil is in many ways scarier than chaotic and stupid evil- remember the Second World War, when the British high command eventually stopped making attempts on Hitler's life because he'd be replaced with somebody who knew what they were doing. However, it also probably means he'll be more responsive to negotiation.

Why do people think Putin is competent? What has he ever done to merit the terms "levelheaded and intelligent", he gained popularity through pandering to nationalistic and religious ideals, rather than actual economic or diplomatic management. Is it because he isn't Margret Thatcher George Bush Tony Abbott? I think we just have low standards.

[DJ]

USA grows ever more conservative and becomes an irrelevant backwater in a couple of decades, meanwhile China continues it's economic world conquest and becomes the next USA. EU breaks apart because German voters get tired of carrying all of Europe on their backs, which leads to an economic crisis throughout Europe. This breaks Russia's gas exports, and Russians starve in the streets.