The big divide (or one of the big divides) in the Traveller community is that the belief that these stats should conform to real world stellar data...which the different Rim products over the years did...however, the data has since been superseded. So, should the recon use old faulty data or should it try to do new data. My guess this is one of the reasons that previous sector offerings have not had stellar data. Now, that's somewhat ok, when dealing with something imaginary like the Rift Sector or Spinward Marches (where only of the Stars are real). But, the Rim is our local neighbourhood and easily verifiable.
Then add to that a layer of Solomani politics which has been discussed in an earlier thread. As much as, one might like the notion of Space Nazis versus the Yanks in Space... Traveller has always been about more complex explanations (so called "Wheels within Wheels" theory). So certainly any treatment of the Rim would have take into account the outward appearance of a neo-Nazi state but delve a little deeper (as even the CT Alien Module does) and find that there is a different but vibrant, prosperous social order that hardly resembles the Nazi state. And, this is where the contention begins...
For me, as I stated, it would nice to see them as Swiss in Space or by extension the United Nations in Space (that was tried in GT with the Authentism Movement which left a very sour taste - partially because it was a footnote and an afterthought). Earlier, I have suggest that we look at the immediate aftermath (up to Shay's Rebellion) of the American Revolution as a model. But then we are back to Yanks in Space. So then we are left to find other models of multinational Federations/Confederations. Today's Russia? Possibly? The USSR - back to the problem of Space Nazis and the economy of the Confederation is not Centrally Planned but a vibrant free market economy - freer than the Imperium in some ways. Yugoslavia - possibly but again, the Solomani would hardly qualify as not being a failed state which other than the hiatus of postwar reconstruction, Yugoslavia was...
So, we come back to Switzerland. Many nations sharing a common identity, prosperous, democratic and a common cause.
So, true, no one Terran state would dictate the entire path of development in the aftermath of the Rim but one or two states should provide the writer with the framework in which interesting writing could take place.
