Robert Fuller’s “AmerRuss” in the Winter 1986 issue of the Whole Earth Review proposes a what-if merger between the United States and the Soviet Union—one nation, two nuclear systems. The setup reads like geopolitical fan fiction: a post-Cold War honeymoon between archenemies, bound not by treaties but by a “bad marriage.” Fuller wasn’t trying to crown a single hegemon or force ideological conformity; he was testing whether two Cold War titans, already locked in mutual dependency, might find a way to live together.

What’s striking isn’t how bizarre the AmerRuss proposal is, but how sincere. For Fuller, diplomacy isn’t chess; it’s couples therapy. AmerRuss isn’t a plan for conquest, but a thought experiment in soft masculinity: forget missile counts—what the two wounded giants really need is relationship counseling.

Rereading this harebrained proposal in 2025, with Russia waging war, China at the gate, and the U.S. grappling with its imperial hangovers, the fantasy morphs into a provocation. What if post-geopolitics isn’t about peace or war, but about relational reckoning? What if every nation-state is just an estranged family member we haven’t figured out how to talk to yet?