It is often thought that the Cold War shaped the World as we know it. And to an extent, it did. It set up the rivalries of Capitalisim versus Communisim, it set up the rise of China, and above all, it was the end of colonialism and European hegemony that also was so key in creating the World as we know it. But, the Cold War was also a prequel to the decade that really formed the modern world.
It was the 1990s that where the antithesis of the Cold War, the rivalries of World where patched up in times of need, or to mend old alliances. For half of the World, the 1990s where a golden era, for the other, it was a dark time of genocide, poverty, famine, war, destruction, and terrorisim that was exacerbated by the power vacuums the colapses of the USSR and Yugoslavia left behind.
But what if the 1990s went a bit differently? What if the USSR didn't colapse and was instead reformed, what if Yugoslavia broke up peacefully instead of violently? What if Czechoslovakia never split apart? What if the Cold War ended with the USSR and USA becoming allies? What if China turned democratic after the student protests in Tianamen Square? Or most critically, what if a small mishap led to nuclear armageddon and ended civilization right as it reached the critical decade of the 1990s?