In the years following the Unification Wars, the Combine and the Caliphate, initially bitter enemies, gradually became close allies. The two nations shared many enemies, and their interstellar holdings were complimentary, making cooperation expedient for both.
The CAC has a few elite units with training and equipment more or less equal to that of their Alliance and PRC foes, but the primary strength of the CAC military remains the ability and willingness to expend huge numbers of soldiers in battle.
The CAC has been very aggressive in its space exploration program, and has the third largest colonial empire, after the Alliance and the Caliphate.
Pacific Rim Coalition
The Pacific Rim Coalition was created as a counter to the strength of the CAC. Early in the Unification Wars the Chinese military invaded Taiwan, but they were decisively defeated by the Taiwanese army supported by U.S. and Japanese forces. A Chinese sponsored North Korean invasion of the south was also shattered with U.S. assistance.
When the U.S. economy collapsed, and American forces were compelled to withdraw to deal with threats at home and elsewhere, the local nations began to fear renewed attacks from the newly-formed CAC. The Pacific Rim Treaty of 2081 named Japan, United Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, and Greater Thailand as full members. Over the next 20 years, many other nations of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific were added, some by diplomacy and others by force. These new additions were admitted as subject areas, lacking the full rights of the founding members.
The PRC is a single-party government providing superficial voting rights to citizens, but in fact vesting almost all power in the hands of the party elite. Citizens enjoy a moderately high standard of living, though nothing approaching early 21st century norms. Speech is controlled, but not tightly, and legislative punishments are relatively moderate.
The PRC military has tried, and mostly failed, to revive the code of bushido and resurrect the samurai spirit in its troops. While some elite units do subscribe to a modified code of honor and refuse to surrender, or even survive, a defeat, most PRC formations simply consist of well-trained and equipped units of modern troops.
The PRC has the fourth largest collection of interstellar colonies, but is far behind the "big three" in both settled worlds and naval strength.
Europa Federalis
Europa Federalis consists of the territory of the former nations of the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain. Europa is governed by three consuls, who are elected from a designated class of elites known as the Concordat. Although entry into the Concordat is theoretically open to any citizen, in reality the existing members control access. Cronyism and patronage is the only way to advance, and upward mobility is rare.
Europa Federalis is in the second tier of superpowers and is not a match for the Alliance, Caliphate, or CAC. Europa is the mortal enemy of the Central European League, and the two powers fought bitterly and unsuccessfully for total control of the continent during the Unification Wars. They have carried this enmity into space.
Europa has a relatively small collection of colonies. All colonization is done under strict government oversight, and existing colonies are subject to the heaviest bureaucratic burden of any of the powers. Inspectors, regulators, and political officers swarm over every colony world, suppressing economic activity and making Europa's settled worlds the least productive in human-occupied space.
Colonies are garrisoned by the Compagnies d’Etoile, well organized and equipped units of colonial regulars. The Compagnies are recruited on Earth, and volunteers receive grants of land or mining rights in exchange for a commitment to settle on the frontier after their ten year term of service.
The Compagnies are supported by Consular Guard units of powered infantry. Europa has also maintained the ancient French Foreign Legion, a small but highly effective frontier fighting force manned entirely by outcasts of other nations.
Central European League
The intensity of the Caliphate's attack in the early years of the Unification Wars was such that virtually all the nations of Europe were forced to join forces to hold back the onslaught. Once this southern front was stabilized, Europe was thrown into confusion as many of the old governments collapsed, their bloated and bankrupt bureaucracies no longer able to sustain themselves or deliver even basic civil services.
The coalescence of Europa Federalis from the Latin nations of Europe caused the Germanic and Slavic peoples to fear Gallic domination, and they looked to the shattered remnants of Federal Republic of Germany for leadership. The senior generals of the Heer, now fully in control of the German government, drafted a new constitution offering associate status to neighboring nations. The resulting Central European League ultimately came to encompass all of greater Germany, Poland, the Balkans, and parts of Belarus, the Ukraine, and Scandinavia.
The CEL is essentially a military dictatorship. The new Reichstag was comprised of 333 members, 200 nominated by the military and the rest elected by the component states. The Chancellor is chosen by the Reichstag, but the commander of the Heer has veto power over any Chancellor-elect, and to date none but senior generals have served.
The CEL is the only superpower to have a completely new, purpose-built capital city. With Berlin virtually destroyed by revolution and riots and occupied by millions of squatters and refugees, the CEL government commissioned the construction of a new city to be called Neu-Brandenburg. Though small by the standards of other capitals, it is the newest and most modern city in the world.
The CEL has a moderate, but very consolidated and organized interstellar empire. The frontier military forces of the CEL are spearheaded by elite panzergrenadier units of powered infantry.
The CEL remains a bitter enemy of Europa Federalis.
Russian-Indian Confederacy
In the early stages of the Unification Wars it seemed as though the tattered remnants of the old Soviet Union would fall to the forces of the Caliphate. The invader was eventually defeated, as had happened so many times in the past, by the Russian winter combined with a desperate counteroffensive. The previously scattered remnants of the Russian, Georgian, and Ukranian armies, reinforced by a small but capable contingent of allied US forces struck back, and in a massive two-month battle they defeated the forces of the Caliph and turned them back.
The Russians and their allies never regained all of the territory lost to the Caliphate and were subsequently deprived of several Asian provinces by the CAC and the PRC. Nevertheless, with continued U.S. assistance and a humiliating but necessary treaty with the PRC, the situation was stabilized, and the newly formed Confederacy survived to emerge, however marginally, as one of the superpowers.
The CAC and the Caliphate had destroyed the emerging Indian superpower, but they fought each other to exhaustion over the spoils. The Russians, regrouped and reorganized, attacked south and reclaimed the former Soviet states in the area, then invaded Afghanistan and seized part of Pakistan. Establishing contact with the scattered and disorganized remnants of the Indian military, the revived Russian army drove south. Taking advantage of an opportunity, they offered the Indians a co-equal partnership and extended the Confederacy to include the re-claimed northern areas of India.
The Confederacy is ruled by three triumvirs, elected to staggered ten-year terms of office by the Oligarchs, the leaders of the large business combines that control the economy. The RIC is a relatively poor and technologically backward superpower, and the Russo-Indian military, other than a few elite strike units, is poorly equipped.