GZGverse UN

For all of you who consider the GZGverse UN to be a relatively weak,
primarily peace-keeping force, I'm afrain I have some bad news :-/

SGII p.65 says:

"The United Nations, by now very much an independent body with its own
resources and military forces,..."

Nothing new really, but it does mean that none of the Major Powers have a
significant influence on UN operations in the 2180s.

What is new however is what the latest GZG publication has to say -
namely the 2001 catalogue:

"UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND:

From its early years as a peacekeeping and policing force in the Core Worlds
and Inner Colonies of the human sphere, with ships and crews loaned from the
various member states of the UN, the UN Space Command has grown

into an autonomous force with its own fleet assets, ship designs and
construction yards. By the time of the First Xeno War against the Kra'Vak, the
UNSC fleet is as large as that of any of the main human power blocs and its
command structure is completely independant of the navies of the member
states, answering only to the UN Grand Council - which by this time is a

Terran World Government in all but name. During the Xeno War and the ensuing
Siege of Sol, the UNSC fleet forms a major part of the defensive

forces protecting Earth and the Core Worlds from the alien advance. The ships
of the UNSC fleet are powerful vessels designed with the cutting edge of human
technology, and make wide use of modular designs to simplify construction and
repair."

Definitely not restricted to lightly-armed peace-keeping operations any
longer... Note especially the bit about the UNSC fleet being "as large as
that of any of the main human power blocks" - IOW, by the late 2180s the

UNSC is one of the Major Powers.

Another interesting bit is the "...which by this time is a Terran World
Government in all but name" one. How did the UN grow this powerful even on
Earth, where all of the Major Powers hold large chunks of territory?

Like John, I don't quite see how the small parts of Earth which haven't yet
been absorbed by the Major Powers could suffice to effectively wrest
control of Earth away from the Major Powers on their own - which means
that the UN has to have a very solid power base somewhere else in order to
pull it off... and the UNSC's mandate from 2143 gives a pretty strong hit
about where to find that power base.

***
WRT whether or not Iran and AFghanistan are parts of the IF or not, John

has a very good point that there must be a land border between the IF and the
ESU somewhere which means that Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan can't all
be independent from the IF - or at least they can't be independent *with

their current (2002) borders intact*.

I still don't think that the (mostly secular) Turks or the (predominantly
Shi'ite) Persians would fit very well into the (essentially Sunni) IF, though;
and there is the note about the House of Saud finishing "its suppression of
its fellow ARAB States and creates the Islamic Federation" (my emphasis).
Neither Turkey nor Iran are Arab states, and frankly I think that the EU and
Russia would act to prevent them from being conquered by

the IF simply to keep the IF away from their own borders.

However... there is a people straddling the border between Iran, Turkey,

the (ex-USSR, will-be-ESU) Caucasus and the Arab territories which is
currently fighting to establish its own state. What's more, their history is
so intertwined with that of the Arabs that most people consider their

best-known heroes to have been Arabs. (Heck, Saddam Hussein loves to be
portrayed as one of these non-Arab heroes while still fighting the
people from which the hero came!) What if this people succeeded in getting
their independence, only to be absorbed into the IF?

Later,