User blog comment:Frymon/Ideas for my Timeline needed/@comment-461469-20100818043027

Yank, I really don't think you can have two fighting Cold War-esque superpowers next door to each other, as it leave out the rest of the world from joining them, and one nation would have to be the "alpha dog", or they would have no reason to join in two different camps. Because, in OTL, the fear of Soviet Expansion drove the Western European powers, including the US across the Atlantic Ocean, to create NATO, while the USSR created the Warsaw Pact in response to NATO, and especially America, on the other side of the world. If it was France and Germany who were the superpowers, for instance, then one would always easily be on top, while it just leaves the "Cold War" to be an European Issue, not a global one, and therefore makes it difficult for both nations to be considered "superpowers" if their only conflict is on one continent. It makes even less sense in North America, because their would be four countries: the US, the CS, Canada and Mexico. It would be a "war" between the US and the CS, with Mexico and Canada cheering for their ally on the side lines.

But, yes, the CSA becoming a superpower is plausible, as say the US hits a major economic crisis while the Confederacy booms, with an empire in the Caribbean and manpower enough to possibly stand toe-to-toe with any other threat.

By the way, I think NAP means Non-Aggression Pact.