This is stupid. Enjoy

"What are they defending against?" Isn't it OBVIOUS Cody? Aliens, it's aliens. Reagan and Gorbachev agreed to a mutual defense if Extraterrestrials ever invaded.

Soviets: Can I join NATO? NATO: Sure. Soviets: *Wait, that actually worked?*

it's quite impressive he managed to put this together because asking "what if russia joined Nato" is sort of like asking "what if the British joined Napoleon"

NATO: We are NOT an anti-Russia pact Russia: So may I join? NATO: F*ck no!!!!

USSR: "Hey fellas can I join?" NATO: "No dictators." USSR: "But you let Portugal join." NATO: "I said no dictator(s), we're allowed to have 1."

America and Russia “living together” in NATO would make a great sitcom plot

When Russia joins NATO and America gets kicked out: “You can’t do this to me… YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I SACRIFICED?!”

Another factor that kicked off the rivalry between the US and the USSR was that both sides irrationally feared each other, feared the other was out to get them (hindsight neither side was really looking for a fight and was willing to mutually cooperate if given the opportunity)

I like how most of the scenarios either remove a person from the timeline or change a small decision by a diplomat, sometimes turn the tide of a significant battle This one is just “Yuri the psychic used his powers to force the US and the Soviets to get along”

This scenario is just turning off historical AI focuses in HOI4 but in/after the Cold War

The only reason Russia and the West would get together is if there’s an extraterrestrial enemy so powerful that they have to put aside their differences

“No enemies would join a alliance together.” Here is a list of countries that joined a alliance despite being enemies Greece and Turkey UK and France Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empire Greek states (pre-Roman) joining together every time a foreigner declares war on one

The funniest thing about the 1st scenario is that, despite all the chaos, the club wouldn't end since neither USA nor USSR would want to leave and allow the other to dominate it

I know it'd be immediately demonetised and the comments would descend into a complete hellscape but it'd be really cool to hear your take on what the world would look like now if Petoria had won the 2000 Rhode Island Conflict.

Tom Clancy wrote a Jack Ryan novel where Russia joins NATO to defend against a Chinese invasion. It’s a good read, if a bit crazy how easy Clancy makes it.

This really just becomes a “what if nato answered the Soviet’s text drunk with ‘yeah sure you can join’ and when they got sober they just didn’t back down from it” like it would have never happened because then it basically just self dissolves because the whole point for existence stopped

Tom Clancy actually covered this scenario in his book's timeline with 'The Bear and the Dragon'. It involved China, due to several factors, performing espionage and threatening to invade Russia. The US offers Russia's pro-western government emergency entry into NATO and they accept. It wasn't too realistic but it was an entertaining read nonetheless.

Zelensky: OK, you stop the war, we stop joining NATO. Putin: OK, deal. *the next day* Putin: We're joining NATO Zelensky: WTF?!

I love how after every video, I can say to myself, "Well, things could've been worse." Thanks for giving me a positive outlook in how our timeline is going.

I think a more interesting hypothetical would be "What if Russia joined the EU?" He's basically talking about the same stuff. But NATO is a military alliance, while the EU is a political and financial one. I wonder if Cody would think about the differences between these 2 ideas.

I remember reading somewhere, I think in the NS Archives, that Gorbachev was under the impression that NATO would evolve into more than just a military alliance, but more into something similar to the EU with more integrated economies. Curious that if Russia had joined NATO after the fall of the Soviet Union, if they would have pushed for NATO to move towards something more like the EU.

I can never get past how much Putin looks like my uncle.

Удивительно. Что при Путине,Россия так же подавала заявку в НАТО. Типо:"Ладно,создадим однополярный,но спокойный мир". И нам всегда отказывали. И ладно,если альянс существовал во время холодной войны. Но после распада,после 2000,зачем он был нужен?

I am totally going to write a fantasy world where the main-conflict is driven by a mutual defense pact dominated by two opposing factions

I think a major issue with Russia trying to join NATO is that Russia would be required to completely replace all its old hardware to comply with NATO’s standardization agreements, and I’m not sure that they could even afford to do something like this at any point in their history after the end of WWII

"Can we join NATO?" "Sure thing friend!" *A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one*

To my knowledge, Russia tried seriously joining NATO at least thrice. It's therefore nowhere near as crazy as it may sound. First time in 1954, Khrushchev tabled an extremely serious offer to NATO: if the USSR joins, we can finally unite the entire northern hemisphere into one military hyperpower. This was rejected by the UK and US. Second time in 1991, the newly arising Russian Federation once again tabled the idea of joining NATO. They were summarily told to take a walk. **Throughout the Gorbachev and Yeltsin years, Russia made constant and consistent efforts to align with its Western counterparts. See NACC in 1991, PfP in 1994. Third time in 2000, Vladimir Putin extended the question of a NATO invitation to the US and to Bruxelles HQ. Putin himself at the time said it was difficult for him to visualize NATO as a competing, possibly antagonistic military alliance in light of the progress made from 1991 until 2000. A deeper alliance was a primary pursuit for Russia. I don't remember the subsequent details, but the response was a cold shoulder. NATO instead decided to focus on small, inconsequential Central and East European nations. Nations which are, even today after so much NATO effort, nowhere near capable of effectively defending their own borders. NATO could have had supremacy over the western hemisphere. Instead, NATO chose to propagate cold war era McCarthyism and intentionally sideline one of its most strategic potential member states. Today, as a result, we have politically engineered fratricide in Ukraine. We have an America who can't protect the world. We have a Russia who is done trying to play friends, a Germany who is militarizing too late, and an India who is no longer confident in the West. We see European states who are no longer uniformly confident in Western security guarantees. And we see the worst case scenario anticipated by NATO decades ago: an aspiring and motivated China entering in a closer alliance with an alienated and eastern-facing Russia to create NATO's biggest geopolitical dumpster fire Either way, one hell of a good going we got going on right now.

"And don't just say China." I laughed way too hard at that!

"and don't just say China" "ok, The people's republic of China"

"A house divided, where the family is constantly fighting and trying to upstage one another, many regretting why they ever moved in or where even born." I feel personally attacked.

Dang, America getting kicked out of NATO is like an owner of a company getting voted out by his board of directors…

Hmm, mentioning the Turkish invasion of Cyprus does bring up an interesting what if scenario. In the real timeline Greece did fight a bit during the invasion with several Greek units stationed in the island. But not officially. So what if the Cyprus invasion escalated to a full blown Greko-Turkish war ?? The consequences could be extreme given the date and that both are Nato members.

Russia: two-headed eagle America: one-headed eagle Russo-American Alliance: three-headed eagle It's just math, guys.

Russia: joins NATO NATO: error 404

USSR asking to join a military alliance against USSR is the pinnacle of trolling. Like - Yo, guys, watcha doin? - Threatening you with nukes. - Cool! Can I join?

Is it worth considering that in the US-Russia team-up scenario that, given the greater hostility shown by china, there would be less economic dependence built up?

Can you imagine the enormous clusterfuck of having Russia's arsenal change to NATO standards?

Maybe the early NATO-Russia alliance could’ve both worked together to get to space faster and farther. A “For all Mankind” kind of thing.

Is no one gonna talk about how nato was made to deal with russia

Russia: Let us join! NATO: 99% chance we reject you Russia: So you’re telling me there’s a chance!

"Russia is part of the European culture, and I cannot imagine my own country in isolation from Europe and what we often call the civilised world. So it's hard for me to visualise NATO as an enemy." - Vladimir Putin, 2000

Enjoyed the video, that nord VPN deal was too sweet to pass up. Went and bought my plan, thankfully there were still a few hours left. Thanks Cody!

2:36 “ 1953, Stalin is *DEAD* “

It always makes my day when Cody uploads, I was having a bad one until now.

I love how NATO looks so tired in the thumbnail. Also interesting idea.

0:57 holy *fuck* they're getting compressed into a singularity

13:53 Chinese here I can say 99.99999% of Chinese “love“ Russia because if this people literally call Russia “meat shield” on Mainland Chinese internet

Cody: A two headed eagle. Me: Oh, like the Imperial Aquila from 40k? Cody: *shows the Imperial Aquila from 40k* Me: Oh no.

I think a more "realistic" alternative would be: "What if Russia joined the EU?"

Love these videos!

I love how he manages to hand wave everything in this vid while just giving up on the Manifest Destiny episode.

What if Russia joined the EU is a more interesting question. Russia joining an anti-Russia alliance makes absolutely no sense.

Although the west didn't actually care if the members of NATO were democratic or not. It only mattered that they were anticommunist. That's why countries like Greece under Papadopoulos was part of NATO.

They're defending eachother, mutually, against the greatest threat to Humanity.. Emus! And their Cassowary Overlords! Also "Aliens... Man..."

Thank you very much, I couldn't sleep at night until I listened to this

*A NATO with Russia would be more scrambled than the Holy Roman Empire.*

"To Defeat the Enemy, Join the Enemy and because you're so incompetent they will Lose" -Sun Tzu (Probably)

2:28 - BaZZed 😅😅

It's not if Russia would join it's if usa would let Russia join NATO

7:53 I mean this did happen to some extent. The British and French were upset with US interference in their colonial and imperial affairs, ironically being unsupportive of their allies, and so sought to detach themselves from US foreign policy. I remember Enoch Powell being supportive of an alliance with the Soviet Union and implored Thatcher to do the same.

In the timeline where nato is taken over by the soviets, the franco-british would probably keep more of their imperial influence since the USA would be isolationist and the USSR wouldn't want to risk losing their 2 biggest allies

There actually was a brief moment where Russia was considered to join NATO. The problem was that Russia wanted instant membership, they thought they would skip the onboarding process. NATO said no, you have to go through the whole process, you have to become NATO compliant, and Russia threw a bitch fit and it ended. Also NATO REALLLLLY didn't want them to start with because they feared Russia would just use their position within NATO to do what they do on the UN Security Council and veto anything that wasn't beneficial to them, because NATO operations have to be unanimously voted upon.

This went from 7 hours ago to, 1 year ago. Time goes to fast😔

Russia joining NATO or any sort of collective security agreement with the west would require that they would have felt threatened by China...which is not a historical impossibility. After all, after the Sino-Soviet split, Soviet-Chinese relations soured considerably and Russia took a fair bit of land from China in the past. One can imagine China going down a different path post-Mao, becoming more dogmaticaly communist and belligerent. If the Soviets fell like they did in our timeline, Russia could have faced a very hostile, Juche North Korea-tier China in the East. Since the Russians and the west (or rather americans via Taiwan and Japan) have now a common enemy, a security agreement could perhaps been worked out to free both sides resources to contain China. Europeans wouldn't have much stakes in Asia, but would probably welcome the idea of cold war divisions dissipating. In this timeline China doesn't become the "factory of the world", it becomes the mother of all rogue states, constantly using whatever means it has to undermine the new Eurasian-Atlantic alliance against them, thus perpetuating a cycle of unrest and proxy wars which continues to justify the existence of this new West-Russia alliance.

The Soviet strategy of proposing that the U.S be relegated to a non voting position is actually pretty smart, at least in terms of propaganda. They basically showed that NATO was an offensive imperialist alliance where not all members were equal and was mostly meant to preserve American hegemony. Luckily, the Soviets firmly rejected the idea of forming their own offensive imperialist alliance where one country held the vast majority of the power and everyone lived happily ever after.

The real reason NATO didn't let the Soviet Union join is because they wanted James Bond movies.

Achievement unlocked: Global Peace

10:13 - I don't think Russia really opposed the US at the time that Putin requested to join (early 2000s). In fact, there was something to ally over, and that's over fighting terrorists in the Middle East. So I think it's possible, provided NATO as a whole is focused enough either on terrorists in the Middle East or on China to ignore Eastern Europe's animosity towards Russia. The US wouldn't be kicked out of Europe, but Russia would insist of having military bases in Europe just like the US. Think them requesting access to the ports of Istanbul, and several others, including Crimea and perhaps Gibraltar and Crete, as well as land bases in places like Gaziantep. Now, the crisis in Ukraine back in 2014, happened because up until then, Russia had been leasing the port facilities of Crimea from Ukraine, and was worried that the Ukraine might not renew the lease (due to expire in 2017 back then). This would have been a pretty big blow to Russia, as Crimea was the only viable base for the Russian Black Sea fleet. So we can see Russia securing indefinite access rights to the Crimean port facilities in exchange for not invading, as well as similar arrangements in Turkey. Likely not as much in Eastern Europe (with the obvious exception of Crimea), due to the focus of geopolitics being on the Middle East and China rather than in Europe in this scenario. Georgia will likely still happen as in OTL, as Russia had recognized the Abkhazian and South Ossetian separatists back in the '90s, so if Georgia moves against these separatists, Russia will move against Georgia. Generally in that scenario, NATO would become an anti-terrorist/anti-China alliance, focusing its energy outward and dealing with any Russian shenanigans the same way they dealt with Turkey's in Northern Cyprus.

NATO: we are formed to fight Russia/the soviets Ussr: can I joined? NATO: what? NO!

Video Idea: What if Napoleon wasn’t stopped at Waterloo? What if Napoleon won Waterloo? What would he have done when he won? Napoleon is my favorite historical character so I just really need to know. Thank you!

1940s USSR: May I come to you? NATO: No 1980s USSR: Can I come to you? NATO: No 1990s Russia: Can I come to you? NATO: No 2000s Russia: Can I come to you? NATO: No 2007 Russia: You signed up for this yourself. Hey, China!

I love how even in bizzare scenario like this Cody... Don't really focus only on alternate history, but uses the scenario to tell why we are where we are (in oue timeline)

The Imperial Aquila genuinely killed me

The fun thing is that in 2010s there was an actual idea and work between Nato's and Russia's officials to somehow merge. But I doubt that Baltic states whould allow that happen.

10:18 "Two superpowers that opposed one another would never want to come together in the same alliance." The Soviet Union and China were not rivals per se. However, they were considered to be two superpowers that came together during the Cold War. Even today, Russia and China are very close. P.S. I already know that Russia is no longer a superpower.

2:36 “It’s 1953 and Stalin is dead.” The way he said that so casually just was unexpectedly funny for me.

5:15 The "allied but with much animosity and undermining" scenario you're describing can be seen to an extent in real life with Saudi, Pakistani, Egyptian and Israeli relations with the U.S., so its not as totally impossible of a concept as it might seem.

Nice video

Back in 2000 russia actually applied for nato

I would like a "What if the League of Three Emperors" (The pact between Imperial Germany, Imperial Russia, and Austria-Hungary to defend each other before WW1) "Stuck together"

How about doing "what if NATO invades Russia?". Because a LOT of people on twitter seem to think that's a great idea right now. Someone should point out why it's actually a *terrible* idea. Mostly this seems to be either based on a mistaken belief that NATO could prevent nuclear retaliation with a decapitating first strike. (they could decapitate sure but it still wouldn't prevent the nuclear retaliation) or that Russia "wouldn't dare" to escalate a conventional conflict into a nuclear one (they don't seem to know that small battlefield nukes make this sort of escalation a lot more likely than they realize)

"more like an iron patchwork" YOU WHAT Lmao this editing is spot on.

Please do a video on if the Sino-Soviet split never happened or was patched up in the 70s. It would be super cool.

Churchill actually wanted the USSR to join Nato. At that time British and French contributed most to the NATO Forces and the US was only a minor player because the Korean war had screwed up the American deployment plans for Europe. Beria had already made overtures towards the West, and the proposal of the Soviets to join NATO would have been a great first step towards ending the Cold War and start an era of peaceful co-existence. This would have been beneficial for all parties involved and would have increased the standard of living for the British People (which was still pretty low less than a decade after the war had ended). So Churchill supported the move, maybe he could have been more persuasive in this alt history.

14:01 that's the biggest insult to Russia I've ever seen

good video

I mean, we do have a NATO without the US. That's basically the EU (less militaristic but basically just replaces myilitary power with economic power). Which Russia also hates because it considers joining the EU more or less a prelude to joining NATO and the EU is clearly capitalist.

This is something I've been working on in my own head for a while but would love to see your take on: What if the American Civil War spiraled into a global conflict?

If you can’t beat ’em Join ‘em.

I love these videos! Here’s an idea for another: “What if Harold Godwinson defeated William the Conqueror in 1066?”.

"If I turn an enemy into a friend, haven't I defeated the enemy?" Abraham Lincoln.

Next video: What If Ukraine invaded Russia instead?

I'm at 6:30 and what your describing sounds curiously like the HRE

You had me dieing when the "and don't just say china" clip came on

"1984" probably spells out a fairly realistic way all of the world governments could/would come together. And the ways that would effect the people. Pretty much the opposite of optimistic.

I love that you, unlike other alt-hist channels, admit how stupid and unlikely some of your scenarios are. This is amazing.

I love this channel :P

Bro those sly small jokes and puns are the best.

"We're not letting you join because we need an enemy to justify our bloated defense budget"