Despite research advances and urgent calls by national and global health organizations, clinical outcomes for millions of people suffering with chronic pain remain poor. We suggest bringing the lens of complexity science to this problem, conceptualizing chronic pain as an emergent property of a complex biopsychosocial system. We frame pain-related physiology, neuroscience, developmental psychology, learning, and epigenetics as components and mini-systems that interact together and with changing socioenvironmental conditions, as an overarching complex system that gives rise to the emergent phenomenon of chronic pain. We postulate that the behavior of complex systems may help to explain persistence of chronic pain despite current treatments. From this perspective, chronic pain may benefit from therapies that can be both disruptive and adaptive at higher orders within the complex system. We explore psychedelic-assisted therapies and how these may overlap with and complement mindfulness-based approaches to this end. Both mindfulness and psychedelic therapies have been shown to have transdiagnostic value, due in part to disruptive effects on rigid cognitive, emotional, and behavioral patterns as well their ability to promote neuroplasticity. Psychedelic therapies may hold unique promise for the management of chronic pain.

Figure 1

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Proposed schematic representing interacting components and mini-systems. Central arrows represent multidirectional interactions among internal components. As incoming data are processed, their influence and interpretation are affected by many system components, including others not depicted in this simple graphic. The brain's predictive processes are depicted as the dashed line encircling the other components, because these predictive processes not only affect interpretation of internal signals but also perception of and attention to incoming data from the environment.

Figure 2

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Proposed mechanisms for acute and long-term effects of psychedelic and mindfulness therapies on chronic pain syndromes. Adapted from Heuschkel and Kuypers: Frontiers in Psychiatry 2020 Mar 31, 11:224; DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.00224.

5 Conclusions

While conventional reductionist approaches may continue to be of value in understanding specific mechanisms that operate within any complex system, chronic pain may deserve a more complex—yet not necessarily complicated—approach to understanding and treatment. Psychedelics have multiple mechanisms of action that are only partly understood, and most likely many other actions are yet to be discovered. Many such mechanisms identified to date come from their interaction with the 5-HT2A receptor, whose endogenous ligand, serotonin, is a molecule that is involved in many processes that are central not only to human life but also to most life forms, including microorganisms, plants, and fungi (261). There is a growing body of research related to the anti-nociceptive and anti-inflammatory properties of classic psychedelics and non-classic compounds such as ketamine and MDMA. These mechanisms may vary depending on the compound and the context within which the compound is administered. The subjective psychedelic experience itself, with its relationship to modulating internal and external factors (often discussed as “set and setting”) also seems to fit the definition of an emergent property of a complex system (216).
Perhaps a direction of inquiry on psychedelics’ benefits in chronic pain might emerge from studying the effects of mindfulness meditation in similar populations. Fadel Zeidan, who heads the Brain Mechanisms of Pain, Health, and Mindfulness Laboratory at the University of California in San Diego, has proposed that the relationship between mindfulness meditation and the pain experience is complex, likely engaging “multiple brain networks and neurochemical mechanisms… [including] executive shifts in attention and nonjudgmental reappraisal of noxious sensations” (322). This description mirrors those by Robin Carhart-Harris and others regarding the therapeutic effects of psychedelics (81, 216, 326, 340). We propose both modalities, with their complex (and potentially complementary) mechanisms of action, may be particularly beneficial for individuals affected by chronic pain. When partnered with pain neuroscience education, movement- or somatic-based therapies, self-compassion, sleep hygiene, and/or nutritional counseling, patients may begin to make important lifestyle changes, improve their pain experience, and expand the scope of their daily lives in ways they had long deemed impossible. Indeed, the potential for PAT to enhance the adoption of health-promoting behaviors could have the potential to improve a wide array of chronic conditions (341).
The growing list of proposed actions of classic psychedelics that may have therapeutic implications for individuals experiencing chronic pain may be grouped into acute, subacute, and longer-term effects. Acute and subacute effects include both anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects (peripheral and central), some of which may not require a psychedelic experience. However, the acute psychedelic experience appears to reduce the influence of overweighted priors, relaxing limiting beliefs, and softening or eliminating pathologic canalization that may drive the chronicity of these syndromes—at least temporarily (81, 164, 216). The acute/subacute phase of the psychedelic experience may affect memory reconsolidation [as seen with MDMA therapies (342, 343)], with implications not only for traumatic events related to injury but also to one's “pain story.” Finally, a window of increased neuroplasticity appears to open after treatment with psychedelics. This neuroplasticity has been proposed to be responsible for many of the known longer lasting effects, such as trait openness and decreased depression and anxiety, both relevant in pain, and which likely influence learning and perhaps epigenetic changes. Throughout this process and continuing after a formal intervention, mindfulness-based interventions and other therapies may complement, enhance, and extend the benefits achieved with psychedelic-assisted therapies.

6 Future directions

Psychedelic-assisted therapy research is at an early stage. A great deal remains to be learned about potential therapeutic benefits as well as risks associated with these compounds. Mechanisms such as those related to inflammation, which appear to be independent of the subjective psychedelic effects, suggest activity beyond the 5HT2A receptor and point to a need for research to further characterize how psychedelic compounds interact with different receptors and affect various components of the pain neuraxis. This and other mechanistic aspects may best be studied with animal models.
High-quality clinical data are desperately needed to help shape emerging therapies, reduce risks, and optimize clinical and functional outcomes. In particular, given the apparent importance of contextual factors (so-called “set and setting”) to outcomes, the field is in need of well-designed research to clarify the influence of various contextual elements and how those elements may be personalized to patient needs and desired outcomes. Furthermore, to truly maximize benefit, interventions likely need to capitalize on the context-dependent neuroplasticity that is stimulated by psychedelic therapies. To improve efficacy and durability of effects, psychedelic experiences almost certainly need to be followed by reinforcement via integration of experiences, emotions, and insights revealed during the psychedelic session. There is much research to be done to determine what kinds of therapies, when paired within a carefully designed protocol with psychedelic medicines may be optimal.
An important goal is the coordination of a personalized treatment plan into an organized whole—an approach that already is recommended in chronic pain but seldom achieved. The value of PAT is that not only is it inherently biopsychosocial but, when implemented well, it can be therapeutic at all three domains: biologic, psychologic, and interpersonal. As more clinical and preclinical studies are undertaken, we ought to keep in mind the complexity of chronic pain conditions and frame study design and outcome measurements to understand how they may fit into a broader biopsychosocial approach.
In closing, we argue that we must remain steadfast rather than become overwhelmed when confronted with the complexity of pain syndromes. We must appreciate and even embrace this complex biopsychosocial system. In so doing, novel approaches, such as PAT, that emphasize meeting complexity with complexity may be developed and refined. This could lead to meaningful improvements for millions of people who suffer with chronic pain. More broadly, this could also support a shift in medicine that transcends the confines of a predominantly materialist-reductionist approach—one that may extend to the many other complex chronic illnesses that comprise the burden of suffering and cost in modern-day healthcare.

Original Source

• Hypothesis and Theory: Chronic pain as an emergent property of a complex system and the potential roles of psychedelic therapies Frontiers in Pain Research: Non-Pharmacological Treatment of Pain [Apr 2024]

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When it comes to neurological health, choosing the right specialist is paramount. In the bustling city of Jaipur, Dr. Sumit Kamble emerges as the epitome of excellence in neurology. As the best neurologist in Jaipur, Dr. Kamble brings a unique blend of expertise, compassion, and state-of-the-art care to his patients. In this blog, we explore the reasons why discerning individuals opt for Dr. Sumit Kamble as the best neurologist in Jaipur.

Charles Edward Merriam, the 37th President of the United States, Official Presidential Portrait
The Poisoned Chalice
Upon taking the presidential oath of office after the resignation of President Alvin York, Charles Edward Merriam found himself at the helm of a rudderless ship. Civil unrest was at an all-time high due to mass protests against York’s preemptive nuclear strike and large-scale labor strikes, much of the cabinet had been left vacant by a wave of resignations following York’s controversial decision not to consult his own advisors on the decision, and an already uneasy economy had been thrown into chaos by the total obliteration of a major trading partner. Even the sky itself had visibly darkened while global temperatures dropped, bringing about cries of the end times being visited upon Earth for man’s folly. In this moment of national crisis, Merriam took to the airwaves with a radio address to the American people asking them to unite with him in a national effort for the first 100 days of his presidency to right the course of the country amidst the national crisis.
Moving with alacrity to fill the vacancies within his cabinet and bring his administration into full gear, Merriam leaned upon his network of academic contacts to appoint a ring of economic, industrial, and social science experts — Jacob Viner, Bessie Louise Pierce, George W. Taylor, and Leo Wolman — into several key cabinet positions. Similarly, rather than appoint a political operative as his Secretary of State or War, he instead chose to elevate career diplomat and acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew into his position permanently while promoting War Department General Counsel William Marbury Jr. to be Secretary of War. Finding both Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal and Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to be highly competent and sufficiently disentangled from the chaos of the York administration, Merriam requested that the pair remain in their positions. However, Postmaster General Thomas Perkins Henderson would not be so lucky, as Merriam distrusted his close ties to President York and felt the office was wracked by cronyism, thus requesting his immediate resignation to be replaced with former Louisiana Governor and highly regarded reformist Sam H. Jones. To round out his cabinet, Merriam appointed California Governor Earl Warren as his Attorney General due to Warren’s wealth of experience in suppressing syndicalist insurrectionists in his home state, as well as Delaware Senator and businessman J. Allen Frear to manage the Department of the Interior with an eye towards economizing a bloated department.
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Secretary of State Joseph Grew, a defining member of the Merriam administration with his foreign policy expertise during the world’s darkest hour.
Calming a Roiling Sea
Believing that anxiety surrounding a national economy plagued by boundless problems was at the root of the national malaise that might yet inspire a resurgence of syndicalism, Merriam quickly moved to restore confidence for both consumers and businesses. As a first step to move past the combative relationships that President Hughes and York held with organized labor, Merriam invited newly minted American Federation of Labor President George Meany for a symbolic meeting to discuss labor issues and establish an informal political alliance to raise wages and working standards as a means to settle the persistent labor unrest. Thus, President Merriam and his Secretary of Labor George W. Taylor began applying the National Labor Arbitration Act to settle hundreds of strikes across the country resulting in a moderate nationwide increase in wage levels and the proliferation of employer-provided healthcare as a commonly provided benefit. Taylor even proved successful in earning the begrudging respect of Congress of Industrial Organizations President Walter Reuther’s respect despite the organization’s more explicitly confrontational approach to industrial relations.
Despite this success in the application of labor arbitration, Merriam’s ambition of comprehensive legislation to establish a formal system of corporatist economic structures was repeatedly frustrated by the inability to secure enough bipartisan support in the House of Representatives to pass several successive iterations of his proposals. Yet as a longtime proponent of executive power, Merriam was not entirely thwarted by this setback and notably issued an Executive Order forming the Office of National Research headed by MIT President Karl T. Compton and complemented by a number of figures in both the natural and social sciences to direct national research efforts towards answering pressing questions of the new atomic age. Perhaps the most significant of its achievements were the pioneering of new sanitation, public health, and antibiotic techniques to finally stamp out the bubonic plague epidemic that had persisted since the initial Japanese bioweapon attack. Furthermore, Speaker of the House Wright Patman was successful in passing a budget through the House substantially scaling back wartime spending and taxation in light of the transition of the United States military from a combat force to an occupation force abroad. Anticipating a corresponding decrease in inflation, Merriam worked with his Secretary of Commerce Leo Wolman to begin the process of relieving wartime price controls that had remained in place throughout the York administration while encouraging the development of private industrial codes of conduct for businesses to self-regulate prices.
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A wartime propaganda poster supporting labor arbitration that continued distribution under the Merriam presidency.
Sewing A Tattered World
America was not the only country suffering in the aftermath of the Second World War. The decade-long war had wreaked havoc upon the entire world and left entire nations virtually leveled by bombs and depleted of their resources. American efforts at international reconstruction had been haphazard and largely left in the hands of private charities during the York administration, much to the consternation of its allies and the occupied peoples. Thus, out of a mixture of humanitarian reasons, a desire to restore America’s international reputation, and a calculation that such destruction could breed communist movements such as the syndicalist revolt that had embroiled the United States, Secretary of State Joseph Grew proposed a much more ambitious plan that would soon bear his name. With the strong support of President Merriam, Congress earmarked a staggering $15 billion with wide bipartisan support to be distributed to European governments for necessary imports of food and basic materials from the United States as well as for industrial investments to rebuild the European economy. An ancillary fund was likewise also established to support the reconstruction of China, which had been ravaged by brutal warfare with Imperial Japan. As a committed supporter of free trade, President Merriam also used the leverage of the Grew Plan to compel the recipients of the funding to lower trade barriers between one another and with the United States in order to stimulate international trade. The sole major holdout would be the United Kingdom, where Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan remained committed to an autarkic system of steep trade barriers outside the Imperial system since the country had suffered far less damage than its peers in the Second World War.
Another guiding principle of President Merriam’s approach to international reconstruction would be a wide-ranging program of technical assistance. With the country’s decades-long commitment to widely available public education and a sophisticated network of universities engaged in industrial research, the American economy had come to be regarded as the most technologically advanced in the entire world. Already under President Dewey, the United States had begun programs of sharing its technical expertise in production methods and industrial organization to China and the countries of Latin America. Thus, Merriam’s formalization of an Office for Technical Assistance under the Department of State was an extension of an already well-established practice. With support from personnel and agencies in the Departments of Labor and Commerce, the Office of Technical Assistance undertook a wide-ranging and sophisticated statistical analysis of European industries to identify weaknesses in productivity while arranging for large-scale observation visits by European industrial leaders as well as the collation and distribution of technical literature in order to disseminate best practices across continents. Following the initial success of the program in Europe over the first months of his term, Merriam proceeded with an extension of the program to developing nations in the Middle East and South Asia in order to modernize their economies as well.
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A meeting of Grew Plan information chiefs in the American Embassy in France.
Year Without Summer
While atomic weapons had been deployed several times throughout the Second World War to destroy French, Russian, and Japanese cities, they had never been used on the scale ordered by President Alvin York to destroy the German Empire. As a result of the simultaneous destruction of dozens of German cities in fiery infernos, the atmosphere of the planet itself became choked by a layer of ash and soot that demonstrably lowered global temperatures in the following months. With the effect coined as a “nuclear winter” by British chemist Samuel Glasstone, a world food supply already challenged by the disruptions of war experienced a dramatic shortfall in agricultural production sending many war-ravaged areas teetering into famine. However, this presented a unique opportunity for the United States, which had for decades struggled with chronic overproduction of agricultural products causing dim economic prospects for the nation’s farmers. Now, there was a ready market for the surplus in the United States that persisted even through the nuclear winter.
Though European governments were already using their Grew Plan funds to import American food products in large amounts, Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones was determined to employ the powers of the federal government in assistance of this shift. Backed by a series of executive orders from President Merriam, Jones vastly expanded the neglected Populist-era Sub-Treasury system to grant easy credit and storage solutions to farmers who lacked sufficient capital to take advantage of the vastly increased demand for their product while also using wartime legislation to purchase eroded land for its rehabilitation and resale for food production by government experts. Much like the rest of the executive branch, at Merriam’s direction the Department of Agriculture also leaned into partnerships with dozens of agricultural colleges spread throughout the United States to collect and publish a corpus of literature on improved farming practices and fertilizer production techniques to further stimulate production.
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Electrical lines going up on a rural farm as part of a program pioneered by Secretary of Agriculture John Marvin Jones to further develop American agriculture.
New World Order
Having earned widespread popularity among the American public for his statesmanship at home and thus leaving the November elections with a decisive popular mandate, Merriam turned to the pressing issue of foreign affairs in the latter half of his term. In the chaos of the Second World War and its immediate aftermath, the powers of the Grand Alliance had failed to conclusively agree on the structures of the post-war world. Even after the destruction of the German Empire, which had been the largest obstacle in the effort to conclude new international agreements, debate raged on what form these would take as the world federalist movement took root across the globe. In order to lay the foundation of future global cooperation, Merriam began by reviving the institutions of the Hague Treaty that had been rendered inoperative by the withdrawal of participation by several countries and subsequent outbreak of the Second World War. While the Permanent Court of International Arbitration would be restored largely unchanged from its original construction, the International Monetary Fund would be greatly transformed due to President Merriam’s influential support for John Maynard Keynes’s proposal to formulate a supranational currency called “bancor” to be the unit of account for an International Clearing Union tasked with regulating international trade.
While many nationalists and isolationists decried Merriam’s move towards the internationalization of monetary policy, the circle of Atlanticists within the party led by Vice President Edward J. Meeman was urging him to go even further towards world government. Compelled by a promise made to the Atlanticist faction during his party’s National Convention, President Merriam authorized the summoning of an international conference to discuss the concept of an Atlantic Union between the western democratic countries of the world. However, where many expected that Merriam might appoint a coterie of apathetic diplomats to undermine the movement, the President instead shockingly sent a delegation filled with committed Atlanticists led by New York Senator Grenville Clark, Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver, and the proposal’s first author Clarence Streit to Brussels for the conference, much to the outrage of opponents of world federalism within his party. After weeks spent deliberating the minutiae of the Atlantic Union, the conference emerged just before the holiday season with a proposed constitution and hundreds of pages of documentation surrounding the historical precedents and contemporary reasoning behind the proposal to electrify the debate surrounding a world government.
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A Time Magazine feature of Clarence Streit, one of the leading theorists behind the Atlantic Union proposal.
God’s Instrument or War Criminal?
The most controversial question hanging over the term of President Charles Edward Merriam was the fate of former President Alvin York. To many Americans, York had committed a crime against humanity comparable to those against which they had fought against for a decade and the incident ignited a debate surrounding presidential authority to deploy nuclear weapons. Throughout the initial months of his presidency, Merriam dodged questions surrounding the President and declined to make substantial public comment aside from occasional suggestions that the President had sole command over the United States military. At Merriam’s private urging, Speaker of the House Wright Patman also squashed suggestions that a President could still be impeached after leaving office. Likewise, Merriam directed the Justice Department not to open a federal prosecution against York and thus leaving the ailing former President’s case in legal limbo. Speaking out more strongly after his successful reelection campaign, Merriam clarified that while he found the act personally abhorrent it remained a legal exercise of the President’s powers as commander-in-chief and that as the victims were nationals of another country there was no basis for either a prosecution or a pardon in the name of crimes against the United States.
Beyond just the conduct of the President himself, the atomic bombing of Germany brought with it new concern around the governance of nuclear weapons. Believing that tight-lipped military control over nuclear weapons under wartime authority was a large factor in York’s ability to unilaterally strike Germany, the Senate’s sole independent Brien McMahon led the charge to place nuclear weapons and energy development under the control of an independent civilian commission appointed by both the President and the legislative officers. Though his bill died in committee, it inspired the Federalist Reform Party to counter with their own bill introduced by Kentucky Senator Andrew J. May replacing McMahon’s proposed commission with a board to be dominated by military officers exclusively appointed by the President. While the Federalist Reform majority in the Senate quickly passed the May bill over an attempted filibuster by McMahon, the bill came to a screeching halt in the House of Representatives where the opposition parties unified to fiercely oppose its passage. With Congress at an impasse, President Merriam issued executive orders continuing the status quo of the wartime project board that had been initiated by President Howard Hughes.
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Independent Connecticut Senator Brien McMahon, who took leadership of the fight for civilian control over nuclear energy
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Note: Not strictly bound by Merriam’s term, the following sections are meant to summarize the state of the world after the conclusion of the Second World War.
The Red Stars of Europe
Throughout the decade-spanning Second World War, the United Kingdom had been under the leadership of Conservative Prime Minister Duff Cooper. In order to maintain control against the irascible anti-war opposition led by Labour’s Oswald Mosley, Cooper had resorted to the royal authority of King Edward VIII to unilaterally bring the country into the war and cancel elections throughout its duration. While he had been successful in prosecuting the war to victory and securing the downfall of Mosley’s control over the Labour Party, when Cooper was finally forced to call elections at the war’s end he found voters profoundly unsympathetic to his accomplishments and his Tory government was defeated in a staggering landslide by the Labour Party. Thus, King Edward was reluctantly forced to appoint the Labour Party leader, Aneurin “Nye” Bevan, as the Prime Minister of the country. As an ally to former party leader Oswald Mosley, Bevan quickly embarked on the domestic implementation of the “Mosley Memorandum” to nationalize wide stretches of the British economy while also pursuing a massive expansion of the British welfare state. Following the atomic bombing of the German Empire, Bevan forcefully attacked the wanton use of weapons of mass destruction in a surprise attack and relations remained frosty even after York’s resignation as President Merriam cut off the United Kingdom from any knowledge sharing regarding nuclear power and weaponry.
Yet even the radicalism of Nye Bevan paled in comparison to that of the Spanish Republic, where a blossoming social and economic revolution was years underway. Following the victory of the leftist Republic against Nationalist forces in the country’s civil war, thanks in no small part to the decisive support of President Frank J. Hayes, agriculture was rapidly collectivized by the Spanish government while a combination of state support and syndicalist initiative led to over 75% of the industrial economy being brought under worker control. Taking inspiration from the writings and political efforts of American President John Dewey, the Spanish also imported many of his principles of progressive child-centric education while undertaking the community construction of centers of adult learning woven into forums of political debate. However, standing in stark contrast to the system of government on the mainland would be the so-called “Spanish State” existing in Spain’s African colonies. With their heavy conservative military presence, the colonies had formed a powerbase for the Spanish Nationalists and thus served as a natural place of refuge after their defeat in the war, while the socialist Republican government held little interest in reconquering a system of colonies that it found morally repugnant. Thus, the colonies became the host of a rival government and ruthless colonial state that came under the leadership of Falangist Agustin Aznar after he successfully orchestrated the murder of his political rivals to become the Jefe Nacional.
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Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan of the United Kingdom, the sole power offering a serious challenge to American hegemony over the post-war world.
Integralism Lives?
After the surrenders of the Kingdoms of France and Italy during the Second World War, the Allied powers were too pressed for manpower in their colossal struggle against Russia and Japan in the East to administer a full military occupation. Thus, instead the administration of Howard Hughes accepted the continuation of their governments so long as they cooperated with American occupation authorities. As a result, Italian Integralism and its monarchy would continue under the auspices of General Pietro Badoglio who was vested by King Victor Emmanuel III and the Grand Council of Fascism as Italy’s new prime minister after the downfall of Benito Mussolini. However, Badoglio’s position would become increasingly unstable after the large-scale effort of the German Empire to fund and arm leftist Italian insurgents and increasingly dependent upon the United States occupation forces for support to avert their overthrow. While France would likewise retain its newly crowned King Henri VI, his political strategy would be markedly different from that of the Italians. Believing that the monarchist right would have no choice but to support him, Henri appointed socialist Vincent Auriol as his Prime Minister and issued a new liberal constitution to endear the political left to him as well. Final peace treaties with both countries, forced to be renegotiated after the destruction of the German Empire, would not yet be concluded by the end of President Merriam’s first term though the recognition of separatist movements in Brittany and Corsica was viewed as an implicit precondition by the American government.
As the political and military leadership of the German Empire had been devastated by the atomic bombings, the continuance of the Kaiserreich was not only seen as undesirable by President Alvin York but also simply impractical. Although York would not be able to oversee the country past its initial occupation, President Merriam held much the same opinion and negotiated the de jure abolition of the German Empire alongside the British and divided the country into two zones of occupation. Though relying on the expertise of the limited number of German experts who were both still alive and willing to cooperate with the occupation authorities, much of the day-to-day administration of the occupation zones would be carried out by the military forces of the occupying powers. Yet while the occupying forces made great strides in repairing the utterly destroyed nations and stabilizing its food supply, the occupation faced never before seen challenges with enormous incidence rates of cancer and a newly identified “atomic bomb disease” with poorly understood symptoms and little understanding of its treatment.
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King Henri and Queen Isabelle of France, wearing a more austere style in an appeal to the French working class.
Blood Tide of the East
After Russia’s humiliating defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1934-1935, the country slipped into a dark period of brutal dictatorship at the hands of Anastasy Vonsyatsky and Ivan Solonevich. Yet few could have imagined that the horror could grow worse. The employment of strategic bombing against its crucial oil supply, the nuclear bombing of several of its cities, and worst of all an enormous anthrax attack targeted at its food supply caused the disintegration of Russia into famine and anarchy. As the powers of the Grand Alliance had declared victory and withdrew their troops from active fighting upon the surrender of Andrew Vlasov’s warlord band to western forces, the turmoil in Russia remained raging throughout President Merriam’s term with little outside intervention. Forces ranged from the claimed Romanov regent Mikhail Drozdovsky to the classical Integralist Boris Savinkov to the bloodthirsty racialist Bronislav Kaminski and dozens more in between fighting for the desiccated scraps of the once mighty country.
Ever vigilant on the frontier of this anarchy was the Reichskommissariat Muskowien, the former German puppet state instated by the Kaiser to facilitate the colonization of occupied Russian lands by German settlers. After its Reichskommissar was killed during the nuclear attack while visiting Berlin, his secretary Erich Koch seized control alongside a junta of military officers proclaiming the Reichskommissariat as a haven for the German people and embarking on a program of ethnic cleansing of the local Slavic population. Fearing that a military response would not only require another costly and unpopular war in Europe but also embroil the United States in the Russian frontier, President Merriam opted to continue the York administration’s position of withholding recognition from the Reichskommissariat while instead extending American influence in Eastern Europe under the auspices of his newly formed Office of Strategic Services.
With the German puppet governments in the Baltics, Poland, and Ukraine deeply unpopular and dependent on German support, their governments quickly collapsed under American and British influence leading to the establishment of new governments in each of the nations. Taking inspiration from the British program to unify the three Baltic nations under a single Baltic Union, President Merriam undertook a nation-building program of his own to attempt to unify Poland, Ukraine, and Romania into a single federation. However, the project remained stalled throughout his term due to a lack of enthusiasm from the member countries. Meanwhile, in an accord with the countries of the Grand Alliance, President Merriam and Secretary of State Joseph Grew took to settling the geopolitical situation of the Balkans. With the restoration of the Tsardom of Bulgaria already settled and Greece still preoccupied by civil war, the chief question would be the status of the former Triune. Striving for a balance between the competing claims of Austria and Hungary which had spiraled the world into war ten long years before, Grew negotiated the formation of a Danubian Confederation to replace the former Triune with substantial autonomy granted to the Czech, Slovak, Slovene, Hungarian, Croatian, Triestine, and Austrian states composing it but unifying them with a common citizenship and foreign policy.
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The ruins of what was once a Russian home, a testament to the country’s seemingly interminable anarchy.
Self-Determination For Whom?
Over the course of the Second World War, British and American forces had come to occupy virtually all of the vast continent of Africa and with the end of the war it fell upon them to oversee its fate. With the recent independence of the United States of the Congo under President Alvin York serving as an example, both President Charles Edward Merriam and British Prime Minister Aneurin Bevan were committed to the eventual decolonization of the African continent but they also agreed that the bulk of the diverse African peoples needed further “instruction” on democratic governance and western culture before being granted independence. Thus, the colonial system of rule remained largely unchanged on the continent, though German colonies would be transferred to the United Kingdom as trust territories and French and Italian colonies remained occupied until the settlement of a final peace treaty. The sole exception came in the German colony of Tanganyika, where former German Ambassador to the United Kingdom Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck escaped the destruction of his home in Bremen through a chance visit to his former Askari soldiers and worked with a group of veterans to proclaim a biracial Republic of Tanganyika in the aftermath of the German Empire’s destruction. Recalling Lettow-Vorbeck’s famous guerilla warfare campaign in the First World War, both the United Kingdom and the United States begrudgingly recognized this new African Republic.
Though the British were slow to release their colonies in Africa, the immense pressure building up within India could not be contained any longer as the Indian National Congress refused to tolerate the continuation of the home rule status quo. Thanks in large part to the close personal relationship of Prime Minister Bevan and Indian nationalist leader Jawaharlal Nehru, negotiations proceeded smoothly albeit without significant consultation of Muslim authorities that Nehru had clashed with previously. In the final agreement, India was granted independent Dominion status within the British Empire as a united polity and quickly forced the remaining princely states to comply. Under pressure of a possibly violent revolt in Burma, Bevan also pressed for an act to give independence to the Union of Burma soon thereafter. Even less consent from the colonizing power was required for the Indochinese Federation under the leadership of Ho Chi Minh, which had already successfully cast off both French rule and a later Japanese invasion. Though cautious of Ho Chi Minh’s socialist principles, President Merriam and Secretary Grew remained concerned about the more dangerous Marxist-Hansenist opposition in the country and decided to recognize his leadership to bolster his position against the radicals. This anti-colonialist streak would also extend itself to Indonesia, where American troops were instructed not to turn the country over to the former Dutch colonial administrators and instead support the independence movement to foster a loyal American ally in Southeast Asia.
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An independence procession in the newly formed Dominion of India.
Democracy in the Far East
Ever since the fateful day in 1939 when the United States declared war upon Japan, the Tiger of the East had become entrenched in the minds of the American people as their mortal enemy. Yet even despite cries for the execution of Emperor Hirohito and the visitation of revenge upon the Japanese people among the public, cooler heads prevailed in the State Department. The initial stages of Japan’s occupation were overseen by President Alvin York, who magnanimously saw Japan as a country that ought to be reformed rather than punished. Pressing for the shattering of its culture of militarism, the installation of structures of democracy, and even the Christianization of the nation, York’s program for the occupation proved massively influential for the future state of the country. Yet it would be President Charles Edward Merriam, eager to draw down United States military commitments, who would finish the process and finalize the treaty with Japan. Among the provisions of the treaty were the independence of Hawaii as a republic under American influence, the annexation of several Pacific islands including the Ryukyu Islands to serve as American naval installations, the placement of the remaining Pacific islands into trust territories, and the total demilitarization of Japan under a democratic system.
The presidency of Tasker H. Bliss had ushered in a special relationship between the United States and China that had persisted for the next twenty years. Yet under President Charles Edward Merriam, it had begun to fray. Upon hearing reports of American aid dollars being embezzled by the Chiang Kai-Shek administration for lavish personal corruption and believing Chiang to be a fundamentally self-interested and unreliable ally, Merriam quickly soured upon the Chinese Premier. Yet with the death of Vice Premier Feng Yuxiang, the opposition to Chiang remained too scattered for there to be any viable alternative. Thus, Merriam began maneuvering to install a set of new East Asian allies to reduce the monolithic power of China in the region. Chief among these was the Republic of Manchuria, which had been declared by a multi-ethnic group of local leaders seeking to avoid Chinese domination and given patronage by both Presidents York and Merriam. A further spite to Chiang would come with President Merriam’s support of the declaration of Taiwanese independence by Lei Chen, as the island had remained occupied by United States Marines after the end of the war. Despite these affronts, tensions between China and the United States were somewhat assuaged by American support for the return of French Yunnan, British Canton, Japanese Fujian, and Japanese Shandong to the Chinese Republic.
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A woman voting in Japan’s first free and fair elections in decades.
World Revolution, of Two Sorts
During the Great Depression, the Dominion of Newfoundland found itself in total collapse and was forced to surrender its independence back to its colonial overlord in the United Kingdom. Yet the war years remained hard for the Dominion and its people remained deeply unsatisfied with its governmental arrangement. As the concept of the Atlantic Union spread through the world with the impending end of the Second World War, a local movement under the leadership of Chesley Crosbie began preaching for a declaration of independence and subsequent application for United States statehood as a demonstration of support for the Atlanticist concept. Though initially dismissed as a fringe movement, a rapid growth of support led the Atlantic Union Party to carry independence to victory in a 1948 referendum. A subsequent victory in the first elections of the Dominion brought the Atlantic Union Party into power and it made its application for American statehood shortly thereafter. Once again angering the anti-Atlanticist section of the party, President Merriam urged that statehood be introduced as a joint resolution of the House and Senate, which ensured its passage even despite the opposition of a critical bloc of Senators who may have made a regular treaty ratification impossible. Yet a similar attempt at statehood for the island of Sicily would be blocked by Merriam, who argued that the referendum used for its justification was illegitimate due to an opposition boycott.
Long suffering under the neo-colonialism of their former colonial masters in France and a newer clique of German elites dominating the local economy, the nation of Haiti became a hotbed for the ideology of Marxism-Hansenism, which preached a violent and permanent world revolution to secure control of the means of production under the democratic management of the workers. After succeeding in its own revolution to overthrow the capitalist class, Haiti became a haven for Hansenists across the Americas seeking to plot their own revolutions by supporting them with revolutionary praxis, arms, and propaganda. After the outbreak of a revolution in Cuba, President Merriam recognized the threat that Haiti posed to the stability of the Americas and ordered the imposition of trade sanctions to strangle the suspected flow of funds and materiel from American Hansenists to the island. Furthermore, Secretary of State Joseph Grew orchestrated a vote in the International Association of American States to expel revolutionary Haiti from the organization due to its support for world revolution and undermining the government of other member states.
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Map of the world by the end of President Charles Edward Merriam’s first term in 1949. Credit and many thanks to Some_Pole for helping create the map!
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Best Tinnitus treatment in Hyderabad