Line #19 Main/PossibleWar


1	A rather large SubGenre of military fiction and technothrillers, Possible War works are works dealing with a hypothetical, but semi-plausible conflict in the world at the time they were written. Accuracy may vary, as many of these tend to be [[AuthorTract works trying to increase defence spending]].
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3	Can be split into the more plausible techno-thrillers and the more alarmist "invasion literature".
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5	There are a number of popular settings for this, depending on who the relevant "main enemy" was at the time of work.
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7	AlienInvasion is basically this [-InSpace-] (Or rather, [-FROM SPACE!-]). See also InvadedStatesOfAmerica and SecondAmericanCivilWar.
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9	!!UK vs. Germany or France
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11	Also known as "Invasion Literature", this genre was largely published between 1871 and 1914. Started with ''The Battle of Dorking''. Before 1903, the invader was France. With ''Literature/TheRiddleOfTheSands'' (not one of these, technically speaking), switched to Germany (the Entente Cordiale and all that). (''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' was actually a case of this, with the Germans swapped out out for advanced aliens). Believe it or not ''{{Literature/Dracula}}'' has been classified by some literary critics (including Wikipedia) as an example of an "invasion novel".
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13	!!UsefulNotes/{{NATO}} vs. Warsaw Pact
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15	WorldWarThree in Europe, a very popular genre, especially in the 1980s. Nuclear weapons here will be rather restrained in their use, if used at all.
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17	* ''Literature/RedStormRising''
18	* ''The War That Never Was''
19	* ''Literature/TheThirdWorldWar''
20	** ''Literature/TeamYankee'', set in the same scenario, which focuses on a U.S tank company.
21	** ''Chieftain'', also set in the same scenario, focusing on one British tank.
22	* ''Literature/RedArmy''
23	* ''[[VideoGame/WargameEuropeanEscalation Wargame: European Escalation]]'' the two factions are NATO and Warsaw Pact, which are later subdivided into four countries. NATO(USA,France,UK,West Germany) Warsaw Pact(USSR,Poland,East Germany,Czechoslovakia).
24	* ''VideoGame/WorldInConflict'' where the Soviets out of desperation decided to invade America.
25	* ''[[VideoGame/CodenamePanzers Codename Panzers: Cold War]]'' a Soviet fighter collides with a US cargo plane which gives the Soviets an excuse to invade Germany.
26	* ''The Zone'' series of action novels by James Rouch. After the initial conflict the war is (mostly) restricted by mutual agreement to an irradiated, chemical-poisoned strip of land across Western Europe to prevent escalation. This is politically and militarily convenient for the major powers - not so for the soldiers and refugees caught in The Zone itself.
27	* ''VideoGame/FlashpointCampaigns''
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29	!!North Korea vs. South Korea and the US
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31	The "Second UsefulNotes/KoreanWar".[[note]]Very technically, it'd be the same Korean War as the one from 1950-53, as technically that war is still ongoing; the war stopping in 1953 was via an armistice that has never been formalized into an actual treaty. On the other hand, it's likely that in practice, it probably would be called the "Second Korean War": we call the [[UsefulNotes/ArabIsraeliConflict armed conflicts between Israel and the Arab states in 1948, 1956, 1967, and 1973]] different names (''many'' different names), but until 1979 none of the Arab states signed peace treaties with Israel. The issue in both cases is that ''peace treaties'' are concluded between sovereign countries - armistice agreements can be signed with non-state actors and in either case one side or both did not want to utter the implied acknowledgement of the other side as a sovereign state that a formal peace treaty would imply. But legally speaking, an armistice ends ''fighting'', not the ''state of war'' - only a peace treaty can do that.[[/note]]
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33	* ''Literature/RedPhoenix'' by Creator/LarryBond.
34	* Creator/DaleBrown's ''Battle Born''
35	* ''VideoGame/{{Homefront}}'' North Korea has conquered South Korea and is now Greater Korean Republic, and invades the USA when it launched a EMP attack against it.
36	* In the 2012 remake of ''[[Film/RedDawn2012 Red Dawn]]'', the U.S. is invaded by North Korea.
37	* ''VideoGame/SplinterCellChaosTheory'' has war break out on the Korean Peninsula. One notable mission has Sam sneaking through the streets of war-torn Seoul; Sam being an unlawful combatant who doesn't officially exist, both North and South Korean soldiers are hostile to him.
38	* ''[[VideoGame/WargameRedDragon Wargame: Red Dragon]]'' moves the fight from Europe to Asia.
39	* Done briefly in ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyAdvancedWarfare'', the US forces come to South Korea's aid when Seoul is under attacked by North Korean forces.
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41	!!China vs. Taiwan and the US
42	* Creator/DaleBrown's ''Fatal Terrain''
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44	!!US vs. Iran
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46	* Just before the end of the Cold war, Harold Coyle (who also wrote ''Literature/TeamYankee'') published ''Sword Point'', which featured a three-way war between the USSR, Iran, and the USA. USSR invades for the oil US opposes USSR, and Iran doesn't want either of them.
47	* In Creator/TomClancy's ''[[Literature/JackRyan Executive Orders]]'', Iran has taken over Iraq and renames itself as the United Islamic Republic. They soon plan to attack Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to gain control over the worlds oil supply. But the UIR makes a bad choice when it commits terrorist attacks against the USA and its new president Jack Ryan, who has the US strike back against the UIR and its leader assassinated.
48	* ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield 3}}'' the USA goes to war with Iran to track down a terrorist leader.
49	* The novel ''Literature/SevenDaysInMay'' takes place after a long conventional war in Iran.
50	* In the background of ''VideoGame/ActOfAggression'' the US went to war with Iran in the Persian war. Iran invades Iraq to gain control over its oil fields, The US, along with several allied nations came to Iraq's aid.
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52	!!Others
53	* ''Literature/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' was written as one of these.
54	* ''Literature/TheGreatPacificWar'' is about a naval contest between the United States and Japan. It was written 16 and set 8 years before those two countries actually did go to war.
55	* ''Lightning in the Night'' written in 1940 after the fall of France, it serialized a Germany-USSR-Japan invasion of the USA in the mid 40s after the surrender of England. An anti-isolationism propaganda piece. Actually suggested the war would start with an attack on Pearl Harbor, and end with atomic bombs.
56	* ''Literature/{{Cauldron}}'' by Larry Bond (1993): France and Germany vs. the former UsefulNotes/WarsawPact states, the UK and the U.S.
57	* ''Literature/TomorrowWhenTheWarBegan'' and its sequels. Australia and it's allies vs. what seems to be Indonesia.
58	* ''Literature/TheSixthBattle'' (1992): South Africa vs. it's neighbouring states and the Eurasian Republic (a largely reconstituted USSR).
59	* The ''VideoGame/EndWar'' series of the "Creator/TomClancy's" franchise is a scenario of what might happen if humanity created a system of lasers that made nuclear weapons obsolete, the E.U. and Russia emerged as superpowers equal to the United States, and we all had a great big war. Oh, and there's peak oil too as a reason, which is how Russia managed to regain power in the world.
60	* Motofumi Kobayshi's manga ''Battle over Hokkaido'' and ''Tokyo Wars'' with Japan vs. USSR. The former depicts a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido concurrent with a NATO vs. Warsaw Pact war in 1995, while the latter covers a Soviet invasion of Tokyo and Niigata following a U.S. military withdrawal from Japan.
61	* ''Cuban Missile Crisis: The Aftermath'' the game takes place on a WhatIf the Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in a nuclear exchange between the West and the Soviets. Which results in the Northern Hemisphere of the world to be a nuclear wasteland, with the Anglo-American Alliance, the French-German Alliance, the USSR and the Chinese in a four way war for what's left of the world.
62	* ''VideoGame/BattlefieldBadCompany'', The US vs Russia in a conflict that also involved Serdaristan.
63	* ''Literature/{{Vortex}}'', which is about a MeleeATrois between South Africa, Cuba and its African allies, and an Anglo-American intervention.
64	* ''Literature/TheTenThousand'' by Harry Coyle has US forces evacuating through a hostile Germany.
65	* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'': The game starts at some point after an anthrax-tipped missile launched by the Global Liberation Army (read: Al Qaeda) is shot down over the Atlantic. The game then features the US and China mostly doing their own operation against the GLA with the occasional joint operations and fighting rogue Chinese generals allying with the GLA, while all other nations absent despite taking place all over the Middle East and Central Asia and featuring reckless bioweapons usage (the final GLA mission involves taking over the Baikonour cosmodrome jointly guarded by US and China to bombard the US with tons of anthrax-laden missiles).
66	* ''Sunset'' (''일몰, Ilmol''): A very obscure RealTimeStrategy game that focuses on a war between the modern day South Korea and Japan.

Context Main / PossibleWar