I am currently guardedly optimistic that the USA will still exist as a political entity in 2023, and that the EU (possibly under a different name; certainly with a different political infrastructure) will do so as well. But in planning the background for that novel set in 2023, I can't rely on the simple assumption that the USA and the EU still exist.

"Everything in my own immediate experience supports my deep belief that I am the absolute center of the universe; the realest, most vivid and important person in existence."

Somewhere in what's left of this mile long ship wreck, there has to be a way out. But we're trapped. We sent people with the last of the hardened suits to look for exits, but the radiation interfered with the handsets we had, and we've lost contact.