page_title: World of Ghost in the Shell
section_title: American Empire
hierarchical_section_title: World of Ghost in the Shell / Setting / American Empire
caption_attribution_description: English: A map from Ghost in the Shell/Appleseed, showing the political partition of the United States
context_page_description: Masamune Shirow's manga and anime series Ghost in the Shell takes place in a cyberpunk version of Earth in the near future. The series focuses on Japan, but several other nations figure prominently in some stories. The world of Ghost in the Shell features significant advances in technology, the most significant of which is the cyberbrain, a mechanical casing for the human brain that allows mental interface with the Internet and other networks.
context_section_description: The American Empire (米帝, Beitei, AE), also known as Imperial Americana, is a fictional country appearing in Masamune Shirow's anime and manga series' Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, featuring most prominently in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG. The AE exists from before 2020 and at least until 2147, and consists primarily of the American states that had formed the Confederate States of America, plus parts of the Great Plains and Southwest.
  After the end of World War III, the United States is partitioned by an unspecified process into three rump states: the American Empire, the Russo-American Alliance (米露連合, Bei-Ro Rengō, in pre-1991 materials, the Ameri-Soviet Union (米ソ連合, Bei-So Rengō)), and the rump state United States of America (アメリカ合衆国, Amerika Gasshūkoku). The American Empire is the only successor state to play a major role in world politics. Its government seems driven by a desire to restore its diminished power and prestige, towards which end it adopts a policy of militarist aggression and open imperialism, directed primarily against Latin America.
  Due to war damage inflicted on its economy and its weakened political position, the American Empire enters into a security pact with Japan, which had escaped World War III largely unscathed. One of the principal reasons the American Empire seeks the treaty is its desire to co-opt the "Japanese Miracle"; this technology makes the Ghost in the Shell universe's nuclear weaponry somewhat less apocalyptic in its implications than the real-world article, since the radioactive particulates created by an atomic event can be safely contained, reducing the weapons' deterrence potential.
  The pact also reaffirms Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution, thus helping to prevent Japanese superpower status.
caption: Post-partition United States, as seen in Ghost in the Shell: S.A.C. 2nd GIG and Appleseed
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