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  1. Impact of Soviet Svalbard on the Cold War Military Strategy

    Just something I have been pondering lately. For purposes of this discussion, let's assume that Russia at some point claims the archipelago, including Bear Island, and butteflies stay at the minimum until the Cold War starts. The USSR did have an airfield on Graham Bell Island at Franz Josef...

  2. How Stable Is the Napoleonic System in the Longer Term?

    Reading discussions and TLs about victorious Napoleon, I have noticed that there often seems to exists this idea of relatively stable European/French political system following Napoleon's victory. It's not uncommon to see the French Empire continue to dominate Europe and even rise to the status...

  3. WI: Finland Retains Repola and Porajärvi after 1921

    IOTL, Finland gave up its claims on Repola and Porajärvi (see a map) after Soviet Russia offered Petsamo to Finland in exchange during the peace negotiation in Tartu in 1920. Petsamo being an Arctic Sea port, this offer was hard to decline for Finns and has been also the target of military...

  4. WI: US Nuclear Weapons Operational One Year Earlier

    Using tons of handwavium, the US is able to produce nuclear weapons one year earlier than IOTL. The first nuclear test is conducted in July 1944, and first bombs are available for operational use in early August. Against which targets they will be used and how the final phase of war will...

  5. Less advanced computer technology, the effect on space flights?

    What sort of effects would significantly less advanced computer science have on space flights? I’m thinking this question more in a general sense, so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a scenario like OTL’s space race. (Though feel free to share your ideas, if you have interesting ideas about...

  6. WI: China Does Better in the Sino-French War?

    This is probably one of the less known conflicts between China and western powers, even though it did have important effects in China, nearby regions, and France itself. The conflict also seems to have gone better for China than other wars with outside powers during the 19th century. Were there...

  7. Pop Culture WI: No Alien

    Watching this video, I was again reminded how much the Alien franchise has influenced video game industry and got me thinking. Let’s say that for some reason Alien never gets made. What effects this would have on popular culture, especially scifi? One big one I can think is Metroid. It...

  8. DBWI: United China, Balkanized Rome?

    Rome, through its history, seems to have been always able to bounce back even if it has experienced numerous periods of disunity, civil wars and even collapses of central government. In contrary to this, China has since the end of Han period stayed almost continually disunited, even though there...

  9. Finnish Post-WW2 Submarines

    The Paris Peace Treaty in 1947 forbade Finland from having submarines but what if that hadn’t been a case? I’m mainly interested in following questions: What would have the post-war submarine fleet looked like? Not surprisingly, the navy’s early plans had called for small, short-range...

  10. WI: No Mannerheim

    Among figures in Finnish history, Mannerheim is one of the most important ones, and not without merit. His involvement has left both a mark on Finnish history and the nation’s consciousness due to his roles in the Civil War and conflicts during the WW2 (Winter, Continuation and Lapland) and is...

  11. The Soviet Union Doesn’t Return Porkkala (Military Base) to Finland in 1956

    As a part of Moscow Armistice in in September 1944, Finland was, besides other territorial loses, forced to lease the Porkkala area nearby Helsinki to the USSR for 50 years. While the main function of Porkkala was for navy use, the area did also include a military airport and large amount of...

  12. Russia wins the First Chechen War: aftermath

    What sorts of effects do you think the Russian victory in the First Chechen War would have had? One thing which comes to my mind is that the prestige of the Russian army would be probably higher as the war was a major embarrassment for them. You would probably still have stories about tanks...

  13. WI: Yeltsin loses the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis

    I have been lately reading about the 1993 consitutional crisis in Russia, which ended in the victory of Yeltsin and the adoption of the new Russian constitution. Could this crisis have ended differently? I’m interested in two separate questions: 1. Which POD(s) could have led to the...

  14. WI: Åland Islands Go to Sweden?

    In 1921 the League of Nations decided that the Åland Islands would go to Finland based on geographic factors thus solving the territorial dispute between Finland and Sweden. (Rather skillful diplomacy by Finns also deserves credit though.) What if things had gone differently? For the sake of a...

  15. WI Finland retained Petsamo/Pechenga?

    What if Finland somehow retained Petsamo/Pechenga after 1944? Like IOTL, the USSR would still take the western side of Rybachi peninsula after the Winter War. We can use here little a small amount of handwavium and just assume that the USSR thinks the area less interesting than IOTL and a useful...

  16. Earlier Optical Telescopes

    What if optical telescopes had been invented already around the year 1400? Would the optics of the age allowed something comparable to Galileo's designs? If yes, what sort effects this would have had? I'm especially interested in influences this could have had on science and philosophy.

  17. Chemical and Biological Weapons in WW3?

    Did either side of the Cold War plan to use chemical or biological weapons if the War started and if they did, what sort of threshold they had for such an action? Just something I have been wondering lately.

  18. Reliability of Nuclear Weapons?

    Reading P&S stories has made me to wonder how reliable nuclear weapons were actually in the 1980's. Do we have any ideas how many of those weapons would have hit their targets and would they all have detonate successfully? Would it has been possible that some major targets would have actually...

  19. WI: British Withdraw From Buganda in 1891?

    The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) became increasingly involved in Buganda in the late 1880's culminating when it took the country under its protection in late 1890. However, this takeover was soon followed by civil wars involving Protestants, Catholics and Muslims and being unable...

  20. Can the Ottomans kick Portugal out of the Indian Ocean?

    As it says in the title. Would it be possible for the Ottomans to win one of their numerous conflicts with the Portuguese during the 16th century? "Kick out" is maybe too strong expression but making Portugal seriously weakened in the region would be enough. What effects this would have? One...
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