Editing Post-Cold War (section)

=== The Americas ===

The initial years of the post-cold war have been swimming for North America/USA as the country was left as the only superpower on the planet (so much so that until about 2010s they could even have been considered a hyperpower - a polity that dominates all other states in every major metric). This period extended from about 1989 until 2001, when USA was hit hard by both the 9/11 terrorist attacks (to say nothing of the blowback from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, which collectively became the new Vietnam in terms of both length and unpopularity) and in 2008 the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  However, the country still remains ridiculously wealthy and powerful and has a military good enough to easily squash any other rising superpowers and probably wage war against two while defending the mainland from a third one at the same time. Still, the country has some serious issues - most notably the increasing wealth-gap and the ideological polarization of society not seen since the Vietnam War and the resulting civil unrest. Many of these wedge issues are in fact unresolved conflicts and dilemmas from the 1960s such as the incomplete work of the Civil Rights Movement to address the poorer living conditions of the African-American population, and the debate over the role of the United States on the world's stage and whether America needs to be the 'World's Policeman' has reached boiling point. There's also global events like climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic (and controversial lockdowns to quarantine people during the pandemic causing serious economic issues). Whilst, the USA seems to be in the best position to weather whatever geopolitical upheavals are coming ''in theory'', concerns still abate on the growing political rifts and quite frankly, ''[[fail|idiocy]]'' on domestic political and economic brinkmanship and what this means to the wider international community. Already, the US Dollar's usage has dramatically declined from a high of 75+% to below 50% for the first time in history. The combination of the GOP putting a gun over the US debt ceiling and the DNC's advocacy for constant increases in US spending was one part of the reasons for the decline. What really kicked off the acceleration was the widespread financial sanctions on Russia over Ukraine which, whilst while strategically justified, spooked the shit out of everyone else as from their point-of-view, the Dollar has suddenly been weaponised and is no longer a neutral arbitrator of financing. Although the Dollar isn't going away anytime soon and is still the most trusted currency in the world, its long term prospect is starting to look dire unless Washington does something to regain the world's confidence in its handling of its currency. 

South America meanwhile has been a mixed bag. Aside from not really getting much attention or upheaval except for a few countries, it has enjoyed a relative upswing as industrializing Asian countries developed a need for the raw material exports coming out of S. America. Many nations also begun developing and truly industrializing like Chile or North Mexico though many more remain impoverished and forgotten. Of note venezuela's economy collapsed in part due to their dependency on petrol, embargoes and the far left ideologically minded administration of Maduro.