>>1
my theory:
the middle east will get so pissed off at the USofA et al that all the islamic fundamentalists slash extremists will band together and form a united islamic state, which will then proceed to take back every bit of land they consider to be 'theirs'. they'll actually be effective this time, because instead of a bunch of relatively tiny terrorist groups acting independantly, they'll be a solid military force under a single government based on islamic law.
once they get back all the land they lost to some cause or another, they'll be somewhat content to sit on it and not pick fights with anyone else. they'll continue to build up their military force, but purely as a deterrent.
the USofA will, of course, not like this -- they spent a lot of time and money making democracies in Afghanistan, Iraq, etcetera. sooner or later, they'll probably find some excuse to invade the new Islamia (most likely because of some independant terrorist cell who doesn't agree with Islamia's current peaceful agenda -- old grudges die hard), and will do so. most of the European countries will of course join in just because Uncle Sam wants them to.
Islamia will have few other allies, since pretty much all the nations that really agree with their policy have already been assimilated into the islamic state. Germany may join their ranks, but that's only because they always end up against the Americans anyway.
most of eastern Asia will just let be -- let the other two major powers beat the stuffing out of each other. China will just keep accumulating power without using any of it up so as to claim the World Superpower title when all the dust clears. most of the other nations will follow China's lead -- they're smart enough to just concentrate on being on China's good side since that's who the real money's on to win this thing.
except for North Korea. they're pissed because the world's not paying attention to them anymore. so they nuke Shanghai.
China goes livid and blow the hell out of Korea (North /and/ South). the Americans, of course, don't like that either. but their military's all focussed on fighting Islamia (which is a real bitch even with advanced weapons because Islamians aren't scared of death. lack of fear gives a huge morale advantage in any fight.)
eventually, Islamia defeats the American forces (America actually surrenders willingly due to a change in government -- the people are tired of the war and vote in a pacifist. once the USofA is out of the picture, the other allies seek peaceful settlements as well.) both powers go back to their own places and lick their wounds. the USofA ends up paying the islamic subjugation tax, which ends up being barely noticeable with the rest of the taxes everyone has to pay anyway.
China realizes that the USofA is weak, and already let them get away with blowing up South Korea, so they decide to hit America now while they have the chance. they send their nukes towards a bunch of major US cities.
the USofA notices these, of course, and retaliates with their own nukes pointed at major Chinese cities. they may be weak, but they still got out of this scrap without using a single nuke, so they've got a full arsenal ready to go.
China gets blown off the face of the map. USofA ends up with a lot of damage, but nothing too unmanageable (most of the Chinese nukes were shot down in transit by the nuclear missile defence network which was /just/ put up before the war. everyone's amazed that it actually worked. especially the American government, which just put it up because they had too much taxpayers money left to spend last year.)
Islamia claims the Chinese wasteland as their land, since the USofA is now officially part of the Islamia Empire. the remaining Chinese people, who refuse to submit to any foreign power, end up being killed or enslaved. noone else wants to mess.
World Superpower ends up divvied between Islamia, Canada, Brazil and Russia.