There's a difference there too.

Alaska, while a part of the American homeland, was also so far away that America as a whole wasn't in real danger of a total takeover. It's honestly fair to say losing Alaska was like losing a colony, something that two nuclear powers, France and Britain, did a crap ton yet they didn't fire their nukes either.

With China though, they were literally having there doors kicked in by rabid Americans, who for all we know.... Well actually especially considering all we know, were hell-bent on a path of fury that would make "Ethnic cleansing by Genocide" seem like an understatement. So China was in a moment of existential terror when they launched the nukes. America, while bloodied by the loss of Alaska, never thought they would be destroyed entirely. In fact, rather the opposite, as the Chinese made it rather clear they just wanted Alaska for the oil.

Well, back on topic, I think that a large part of the problem with the Brotherhood is Maxson: he's too immature and young to be an effective leader. You can see this in the Brotherhood's entire policy against synths, as Maxson probably rashly decided that they were all evil monstrosities with quick and little thought. You can also see this in that we aren't given any real indication that Maxson has a successor in line in case he dies. Or hell, the fact that he took himself and the Brotherhood's best a good couple hundred miles away from the Brotherhood's power base (I honestly don't know how far Boston and DC are from each other, I just guessed the number) when he could have sent one of his trusted subordinates with a task force to wipe out the Institute threat. There is a reason why there is a 35 year old age requirement for the U.S. Presidency, it is to ensure (or at least to weed out some of the more immature, younger candidates) that the President is someone who has attained a degree of maturity and life experience before taking the position; there should be the same with Brotherhood elders, I just think Maxson is too young, rash, and immature to be an effective leader.

I think that if the East Coast Brotherhood wants to remain a great power for generations to come, it needs to discard the one-Elder leadership structure and have a council of elders guiding the ECBOS's operations, much like how the Midwestern Brotherhood was run in Tactics. For all its flaws, the Midwestern Brotherhood had pretty stable leadership; when General Barnaky was lost in battle during the St. Louis disaster, the Brotherhood was still able to continue functioning and win the war. Under the current status of the ECBOS, if Maxson dies, the Brotherhood is screwed.

We don't know exactly how large the part of the ECBOS that stayed behind at the Citadel is, but I would expect that if the Elder and various high-ranking members go on an expedition, they would have a plan in case it all goes wrong and the Prydwen doesn't return. I would guess whoever was put in charge of their base at the Citadel when Maxson left would be appointed the new Elder.

There is a reason why the captain and first officer stopped being down on away missions on Star Trek. You don't wanna lose your leadership. Look at the MM and Mojave BOS when you lose your leadership.

Maxson IS too young. He is irrational about synths. "They icky so they must die" he literally throws away a decade of honorable service without a second thought. but a dude who is harboring a dangerous enemy in their HQ? A fair investigation and trail.

^^Except Maxson honestly makes it sound like you are his successor if you complete the game with the BoS. As your the only Sentinel in their entire organization.

He also does not name any specific Paladins as even so much as his favorite, except for you and Danse, who somehow has orders to be killed on sight... When he's already dead? Never really got that one. Or why he couldn't just wear a helmet.

Anyways, setting aside the improbability of a successor, having one doesn't guarantee success. Elder Lyons had a successor waiting to swoop in, that mostly agreed with him and was even his own daughter. There shouldn't have been any problems.... Yet somehow shit still hit the fan when he died and we ended up with Maxson.

^ Even Lyons couldn't have predicted that his daughter would die so quickly after him.

The problems started after Lyon's appointment died

@Kvile2000 It's kind of funny how they address how risky it is for the captain and first officer to be on the away team together in the first series of TOS and Kirk's answer is basically "what are the chances of that happening?" and does it anyway.

Yes, but they remembered to bring sacrificial red shirts to offer up to the (sometimes near literal) space gods.

Everyone here should go watch TOS.

Some think the best hope in a situation of anarchy is a force capable of restoring order. This is a low bar, since every faction can theoretically achieve sufficient power to pull this off. So the real question is what comes after? Institutionally, the Institute, Railroad, Diamond City, Goodneighbor, Covenant, and the Minutemen are all run by autocrats, and so with no modification, the commonwealth's future rests in whether the string of autocrats from one of these factions will be good ones. That's a pretty slender reed to rest your hopes on. As Churchill once quipped, democracy is the worst form of government, excepting all the others which have been tried. So in practical terms who offers the "Best" hope for long term betterment of the commonwealth? Probably the only one (DC) with at least a marginal hope for transitioning back to a democratic sharing of power- between the elected mayoral executive and city council which would have to be unsuspended, with the presumably existing judiciary respected as co-equal branch. The natural evolution is to ally with, and eventually re-unify in EU fashion with other entities like NCR and similar democracies world wide. It would be a good opportunity for a global unified government which occurred in the Star Trek Canon around 2150. The massacre of the CPG was a setback, but with the SS in control of the Institute and having achieved military power over all other factions, whatever political will there was to support a Commonwealth Provisional Government could probably be restored, extending the existing institutions of DC to all settlements, with the remnants of the RR, Minutemen, Brotherhood and other gangs either joining the commonwealth police, or being disarmed/jailed/wiped out.

.

Autocrats who rely on outrage rhetoric as little boy Maxsons do and who want to play at being strongmen always go the same way- Self proclaimed "geniuses" like Napoleon and Hitler invariably make irresponsible decisions, like invading Russia or attempting to deal with horrible plagues by getting macho and ignoring health experts. Too bad people only seem to learn after the stacks of bodies get high enough.