2011 Cold War

The Syrian Civil War was the flashpoint that everyone feared it would be. Chemical weapons were just the start. Other countries brought themselves into the conflict, arming one side or another, starting to send covert forces, then overt. In a multipolar world, different blocs took advantage of the distraction. Then the disaster of a tit for tat limited nuclear exchange. Now, in the aftermath of the war in Eastern Europe, NATO forces scratch-build military units out of what can be collected, identified, and reasonably well re-equipped to restore order and support civilisation where it still holds out.

Inspirations: Think Europe as 90s Somalia, not Europe as Fallout III. Some services still run, some places are still civilised, military units of both sides are sometimes clashing, sometimes avoiding each other, sometimes going rogue, but warlords and militias are taking control where they can.