Walter argues that the United States is in danger of becoming an autocracy, although she does not expect a conflict in the United States like the American Civil War in terms of scale.[1] In comparison, she analyzes the circumstances that led to the conflicts in Yugoslavia, the Philippines, and Iraq. Walter also analyzes the democracy of the United States through a "polity index"; this is a scale from -10 to +10, where -10 is an autocracy and +10 is a democracy. According to Walter, the U.S. has gone from +10 a few years before the book was written to +5 when it was published, making the current United States an anocracy—a partial democracy.[2] She pictures a scene that would occur in 2028, in which wildfires burn in California and bombs are set off nationwide.[2]