{Excerpt from ‘Double Talk: A Political Guide For Our Time’}

Big Seven, the: informal term used by political commentators to describe the seven major powers: the Martian Republic, the (3rd) French Empire, the United States of America, Imperial Japan, the Commonwealth of Australia, the Republic of Azania, and the Asian People’s Republic. Between them they dominate interstellar travel inside the Sol system, locking less powerful nations out of colonisation and trade with other civilizations descended from the Precursor Culture.

Conflicts between these powers are common; the United States and France indulged in three wars over Quebec, US and Australia/Japan over control of the Pacific, Mars intervening twice when the US invaded South America, Japan and the APR in the Korean Peninsula, Australia and the APR in the Malay Peninsular, Australia and Mars in the Antarctic, Azania and Australia in the Indonesian Archipelago . Alliances were set early on, some left over from the Fall; Australia and Japan, France and Azania, Mars standing in solitude, and less by choice than necessity, the US and the APR.

Although there is a vast impetus towards conflict between the powers, in the last few years a definite desire for peace, or at least moving conflicts out of the home system, has developed. This will lead either to a new ‘Pacific Century’, we’re told, or war in the Colonial Fringe.

Lesser Powers: includes those few nations and corporate bodies not dominated by the Big Seven powers (see Satellite Kingdoms). The Kingdom of Arabia maintains an isolationist policy; the Nordic Council and Neuprusserepublik both stand against Imperial domination of Europe, and both have extrasolar colonies; the Papal See created the two ‘Catholic’ colonies, and repeatedly claims holy dominion over all Catholics no matter their nationality; and Palestine fervently resists any attempts by the Major Powers to influence them.

The Jovian Mining Corporation and the Belter’s Union are two powerful orbitals; neither has large military forces (the size of corporate armies is restricted by the Lunar Accords of 2267), but both do possess a very real economic power. The JMC, with control over the Jupiter planetary system, has been pursuing status as a sovereign nation since 2289.

Satellite Kingdoms: ‘sovereign’ nations effectively controlled by the Major Powers.

They include the Republic of Quebec, the Kingdom of Spain, the (2nd) Confederation of the Rhine, the Kingdom of Argentina, the Highland City-States, the Helvetic Republic, the Republic of Portugal, the Republic of Libya (France); the Pacific Protectorates, New Zealand, Tanzania (Australia); the Central African Republic, Angola (Azania); the Central American States, Columbia (US); and the Russian City-States (divided between Mars, Japan, the APR, and Russian ‘Robber Barons’).