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Originally Posted by SolemnGolem
Maybe a pre-WWI Germany that continued to lead the world in philosophy, science, and institutions of higher learning, while developing its industrial and trade potential while France and Britain had to deal with collapsing colonial empires?
It seems like you might be able to handwave a world where Germany was in a leadership position without having to resort to German übermensch, if you assume stable expansion for the Germans and wrenching instability for the other great powers. Russia has its historical setback with Communism, and Britain and France could have had much greater trouble with the secession of their colonies than they did historically.
America could have remained isolationist, renouncing the "old ways of Europe" and assuming a much smaller role on the world stage than it historically did.
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That's probably the direction I'd go. The post-Bismark generation works very hard to keep Europe stable through diplomacy and trade agreements. A succession of business-minded chancellors marginalize the militarily-inclined kaisers in order to pursue a web of treaties with Germany's neighbors each of which grants the Germans considerable flexibility. The nation becomes a center of finance and industry while France bogs itself down in West Africa and Great Britain diverts resources into keeping up a vast but, in this peaceful age, largely useless fleet.
The greatest threat to world peace is the Russian revolution, which inspires socialist uprisings in France, Turkey, and, again, the Balkans. Russia collapses, but the Whites and Reds are largely contained to the old empire's borders. France barely hangs on despite taking nearly three years to recover the second Paris commune and losing most of its overseas colonies. Turkey comes in for a soft landing. The Balkans completely go to pieces, but without a hair-trigger series of military alliances across the continent and the Russians safely out of the picture, the conflict is contained.
Despite its stable borders and its boast of being the only country which has never fought a war, Germany is the undisputed master of the continent. With revolts and independence movements in India and Africa, Britain is technically still the ruler of a quarter of the globe, but it's a hollow shell of an empire. Japan, which controls a sphere of influence encompassing Korea and eastern China, and the United States, whose foreign involvement rarely goes farther than Cuba and Panama, are potential rivals for the future, but for now limit their interests to their own quarters of the globe.