The Geopolitical ramifications of US

In 2019 audiences were utterly blown away by the Jordan Peele film US because of its unique premise and fantastic acting. Many were also fond of the social and political themes of the movie. Though after seeing I just like many others had many questions on my mind. Like was Jason a tethered or was the same evil organization in Get Out responsible for creating the tethered. One question I wish to answer or at least generate some discussion around is what would be the geopolitical ramifications of the events of the film.

Spoiler warning for all who haven’t seen the film. Now it’s believed that the experiments that created the tethered ended in 1983. For this scenario, let’s say that is true. This would mean that anyone who immigrated to the United States after 1983 wouldn’t have a tethered counterpart.

Now that logistics are out of the way, let us discuss the scenario. It is the year 2019 the United States is the global hegemon, tensions in the Korean Peninsula appear to be easing, and China is the United States primary competitor and rival. Things seem normal. Then one-day red clothes, people who look identical to many of those on the surface started coming out of the sewers and killing their high world counterparts. The military and the international community would be completely caught off guard. The first few days of the untethering would be a success with many areas in the continental United States being depopulated and overrun by the tethered. Heavily fortified cities like military compounds and nuclear bunkers would be safe from being overrun by the tethered and would act as strongholds to the anti-tethered forces. The tethered wouldn’t be overly aggressive with the immigrants but instead, be fascinated by them. As shown when Adelaide was captured by the tethered, a tethered isn’t naturally aggressive towards an average none tethered but rather are fascinated by them.

Eventually, NATO would launch a military response would be launched. American forces stationed abroad would have to leave their post and return to the United States to aid with the reconquest of the United States. The retaliation would initially be a success, but the Tethered would eventually adapt to NATO's attacks and be able to launch retaliatory strikes. Since the tethered are biologically human, they are capable of anything an average human is. So they’d be able to learn how to engage in warfare. The fighting would eventually devolve into guerrilla warfare with the tethered using the underground tunnels to their advantage. However, conflict wouldn’t be the only thing the tethered would learn. Since they are human, the tethered would learn to adopt ideologies, from nation-states and even engage in diplomacy. With the United States essentially theirs the tethered would be fascinated with the outside world, and some would wish to make peace with the NATO forces. However, there would be some who’d wish to establish peace with NATO in order to buy time to grow in strength and await a better opportunity to strike against the NATO nations. Many tethered would assume the identity of there non-tethered, and since they have the exact same DNA as their non-tethered counterpart, it would be rather difficult to catch them. The conflict would be on various fronts. On the Canadian border, the NATO forces would be attempting to push down into the Tethered dominated United States and assist all the anti-tethered strongholds. In the southern border, Mexico would go on the defensive and would attempt to prevent the tethered from entering their country. However, some major criminal gangs may attempt to indoctrinate the tethered into their ranks.

Within the NATO forces, there would be much mistrust between the NATO nations and what was left of the United States government. With the NATO nations suspecting that the US government of having a hand in the creation of the tethered.

Internationally, the world would be in economic disaster, since the United States is a crucial

cog in the world economy, and with it essentially collapsing the global economy would go into disarray. With America in utter turmoil and NATO occupied trying to end that turmoil, nations held in check by NATO and the US would be free to pursue their goals. Russia would more likely than continue expanding into Ukraine and might start to expand in Belarus and Central Asia. Without the US to impede it, China would begin to build many military outposts in the South China Sea. North Korea might attack South Korea, or both nations would attempt to reunify diplomatically without any US interference. Iran might attack Israel or not. There would be a great geopolitical shift with the west declining and the east ascending. The Tethered uprising would deal the west a blow that it would never recover and the East would seize the opportunity to take the title of Global hegemon. China would work to fill the economic power vacuum the United States left, and Russia would work fill the power vacuum left by the United States.

NATO’s war against the tethered would last for decades and wreak havoc on their economies. It would be a war, unlike any other in human history, against an enemy different from all others that preceded it. With there being over a hundred million Tethered, the only possible way for the conflict to be resolved would be through diplomacy. Whatever successor state or states, the United States would have would be a shadow of what the US used to be.

The west position as hegemon would come to an end, and the East would take their place. The Tethered uprising would eclipse the fall of the USSR and rival the fall of Rome in terms of magnitude. As the years pass the Tethered uprising would be seen as a superpower dying because of its hubris. Red though dead would succeed in her goal of sending a message to the rest of the world. Things would never be the same.