Nice analysis. I hadn’t heard of Schelling points before. They make sense. When one hears all this talk of Russia and China collapsing, it discounts the inherent strength of existing systems - the Schelling points as it were.
Makes you wonder what the Schelling points might be in the United States. In rural areas, perhaps county governments? In the major metro areas, God only knows - probably a hodgepodge of things, from individual city governments, to law enforcement agencies, to street gangs. Maybe corporations, in "company towns"? Historically, Americans identified with their States, but that's likely less true today (except in Texas ;^)...