Dramatis Personae: Part 1- The United Nations and the Interbellum Period
LORE: SELECTED UN FIGURES OF THE INTERBELLUM PERIOD (2470-2523)
INTRODUCTION
This list of characters is meant to familiarize WAYBOUND readers with some important people who appear throughout WAYBOUND's Interbellum Period, the story arc that covers the time between 2470’s Maybe War and the Fools' War (as it later came to be known) of 2523-24. It may be updated as more characters are introduced in stories and should not be considered a complete list; just a sampler platter of particularly noteworthy people who will likely appear in stories. I will add to this list as I think of them, so it may not comprehensively survey the diverse backgrounds of people involved in the politics of this time. This list will likely be infrequently updated, so check back as new stories are released.
ON BIRTHDATES AND SUBSTRATES: “b.” (“born”) indicates an organic human. Organics are the kinds of humans you are used to. The average organic lifespan in the 25th and early 26th century is between 110 and 140 years. “i.” (“initialized”) indicates a synthetic human. Synthetic humans are fully sentient and sapient artificial intelligence based on the full simulation of the digital image of a human brain— or by the current generation, a composite image of several, and have been considered legal equals with organics since the end of cataclysmic social unrest in 2101. Synthetics will, invariably, become more and more computationally complex as they live longer, and this will cause heat generation at the microscale that will destroy their core hardware at or before 34.0481 years (230 seconds). Transferring to a new core is a risky process, and even when it does work, has exponentially diminishing returns, resulting in a maximum lifespan of just over 51 years.
UNITED NATIONS
A NOTE ON THE STRUCTURE AND GOVERNMENT OF THE UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations does not hold sovereignty of its own. While it has largely supplanted the authority of its constituent member states in importance, even under the New Charter System that resulted from the aftermath of the Minervan War for Independence, individual nations are themselves sovereign and hold considerable sway in the decision making of the larger UN as a whole. The UN General Assembly and Security Council have morphed into a legislature, with the General Assembly being perhaps most recognizable to the UN of the 21st century. The Security Council has been completely reorganized with the dissolution of the permanent member veto and an expansion to full representation; the Military Staff Committee holds considerable power, being the right hand of Sol's power in the Orion Arm via UNINAVCOM and COMPMARFORCOM. The Secretary-General serves as the head of state, with a Deputy Secretary-General who serves as head of government. The former is directly elected by popular vote among the entire constituency of the UN, a complex undertaking that is nonetheless dutifully carried out every five years; the latter is nominated by the Secretary-General at the start of their term and confirmed by the General Assembly, requiring reconfirmation at the start of a second term and always beholden to a constructive vote of no confidence by the General Assembly. The Deputy is widely regarded to bear the brunt of the domestic policy and organizational work of the administration, especially in regards to managing the sprawling bureaucracy of the Specialized Agencies, though this is customary rather than enumerated in law; additionally, the Deputy is required to be nominated out of the General Assembly. The Secretary-General may serve a maximum of two five-year terms. The Secretary for Defense, appointed by the Secretary-General, is the commander-in-chief of United Nations forces, except when the United Nations is under a State of Defense, when the role and responsibility is legally transferred to the Secretary-General. Additionally, nations will send Ambassadors to the United Nations to lobby the General Assembly, Security Council, Specialized Agencies, and Secretariat for the advancement of their national interests, a position that wields next to no hard power but immense soft power and influence.
National political parties are organized into international coalitions based on their politics. There are many of them, but only two are true mainstays of UN politics: the neoliberal conservative Alliance of Nations, aka the Alliance, AON, or the Nattys, and their counterpart across the aisle, the Partnership for Prosperity and Progress, also known as the Partnership, Triple P, the Trips, or PPP, a more liberal, internationalist coalition. Individual party ideologies vary within these coalitions, but the umbrella organizations themselves are big tents and generally tend towards what is considered fairly moderate politics within the UN.
The capital city of the United Nations is Bradbury, on Mars. Bradbury, coincidentally, is also the Martian Federation’s capital, an arrangement that has left many Bradburians unhappy, particularly because the extraterritorial property does not pay taxes to the city or to Mars as a whole. Bradbury has officially held the United Nations Building (3705 Unity Square) since 2103, and held the functions of the United Nations since 2096.
Secretary-Generals of the Interbellum Period
Sean Portnoy-Kardashian-West (b. 2400) [United States of America (USA)]- A popular Hollywood action star and passionate activist against sports gambling turned exceedingly moderate conservative politician. Running as an outsider in the Alliance of Nations' Democratic-Republican Party, Portnoy-Kardashian-West (usually rendered Portnoy-West) leveraged second-to-none name recognition and inoffensively milquetoast fiscal conservatism to catalyze his anti-gambling moralization into a campaign for Secretary-General, a position which he served for two full five year terms starting in 2464; leaving him in office for the Maybe War of 2470. While Portnoy-West is generally derided by historians for his poor statesmanship, it should be noted that the War did not spill over past the Frontier, and that he observed acceptable domestic approval ratings for the duration of his terms before the War.
Jean St. Pierre (i. 2440) [Imbrium Commonwealth (IMB)]- The architect of Solar-Minervan détente. Former Professor of International Relations at the Camilla J. Tonsor School of Foreign Affairs at Lovell University, the Imbrium Commonwealth's most prestigious institution of higher learning. Catalyzed by international tensions in the 2460s, she became an activist for greater dialogue between the UN and Minerva and was appointed the Imbrium Commonwealth's Ambassador to the United Nations in 2464, and elected Delegate to the United Nations in 2468 under the aegis of the Partnership for Prosperity and Progress' Liberal-Social Party. A prominent anti-war voice and critic of the Portnoy-West administration during the Maybe War of 2470, and UN Secretary-General from 2474 to 2484.
Shirui Hessert (b. 2428) [Martian Federation (MFD)]- A Martian Federation Delegate to the United Nations from 2467 to 2480, Hessert was known as a foreign policy hawk before switching parties and realigning her politics after the death of several close friends and family members in the Maybe War of 2470. After becoming one of the Partnership for Prosperity and Progress' Colonist-Solidarity Party's most prominent activists for rapprochement and peace, she was tapped to serve as Secretary-General St. Pierre's second Deputy Secretary-General in 2480, and successfully ran for the Secretaryship herself in 2484 promising to carry on the work of her predecessor. Commissioned the Fleet Design 2500 study to look into downsizing the UNC's fleet, and quickly moved to smother it when the study began asking for an expanded Navy.
LT Esteban Miramar (i. 2465) [Republic of Peru (PER)]- A close friend of Secretary-General Hessert who was scarred by memories of the Maybe War of 2470, in which he served as the Weapons Officer aboard an ORION-Class Hunter-Killer Destroyer, the MFV JESSICA A. WITTNER (DDK-704), which sustained heavy damage during the Second Battle of 61 Cygni. A changed man hailed against his wishes as a war hero, he resigned his commission and ran for Delegate in his home nation of Peru in 2475, and successfully proved his chops as a reliably peace-oriented Delegate and a close ally of the St. Pierre administration, developing a personal friendship with Deputy Secretary-General Hessert that would continue into her Secretaryship. After her first Deputy Secretary-General, Leo Beddoe, failed to be reconfirmed due to an ongoing sex scandal in 2489, she nominated Miramar as his replacement over Miramar's own private objections, though he would reluctantly rise to the occasion— and at her urging, he would run to succeed her, serving two terms as Secretary-General from 2494 to 2504. He was frequently derided by his Alliance of Nations opposition, particularly by foreign policy firebrand CAPT (ret.) Diane Jimoh and Australian Prime Minister James Liu, as too weak towards Minervan encroachment, a criticism many historians consider unfair— but few dispute that this perception nonetheless destroyed Miramar's legacy and made the oncoming political sea change an inescapable fate.
James 'Jimmy' Liu (b. 2463) [Commonwealth-Republic of Australia (AUS)]- Son of defense contracting giant Harlan Liu and the man whose election shook the worlds, James Liu has been known as a firebrand his entire political career. From MP to Prime Minister in his home nation of Australia, he led the Liberal-Labour-National party to become one of the Alliance of Nations' strongest bullwarks of hawkish foreign policy in the conservative coalition of parties. A talented amateur country musician known to play concerts for his campaign rallies, and noted for a strange and rough-edged charisma. Liu was known by contemporaries as a politically unkillable gaffe machine, buoyed by strong support from enthusiastic citizens who sought a hardline stance against what was at the time seen as Minervan encroachments against the integrity of the United Nations and the sovereignty of her constituent countries. Successfully campaigning for Secretary-General in 2504, Liu's New Vision for UN foreign policy ended the three decades of détente with the Federated Minervan Republics, which early in his Secretaryship nearly erupted into war during the Akrotiri Skirmish; although this incident notably tempered his foreign policy's aggressive shift, it did not change its orientation.
CAPT (ret.) Diane 'TYDTWD' Jimoh (b. 2442) [Federal Republic of Nigeria (NGA)]- The daughter of influential Unified Naval Command Admiral Chandra Jimoh and a famed Unified Naval Command space fighter ace of the Maybe War, stationed aboard the USS ENTERPRISE (ECV-248). An outspoken opponent of rapprochement and vocal critic of the Federated Minervan government. After retiring from the Nigerian Navy in 2495, she successfully ran for Delegate and served as a Nigerian Delegate to the United Nations as a member of the Alliance of Nations’ People's Democratic Accord Union from 2496-2504, when she was pulled by the Liu administration to serve as his first and only Deputy Secretary-General. As Deputy, commissioned the founding of a Naval Policy Working Group within the UNC and UN Intelligence Community, a group she championed until it came to oppose the 6000-ship Navy goal set by the Liu administration. At the urging of Secretary-General Liu, she herself ran following his second and final term, leveraging her war hero credentials, visible participation in the Liu administration's policy, and mounting tensions with the Federated Minervan Republics to drive a successful campaign for the Secretaryship in 2514. At the outbreak of the Second Minervan War— with the benefit of hindsight later known as the Fools' War— in 2523, she saw public opinion rally behind her, but a vocal— and rapidly growing— Partnership for Prosperity and Progress opposition squarely blamed the leadership of Liu and Jimoh for the war. This is a charge most modern historians agree with— and one that would see the Alliance of Nations receive the single largest loss of seats up for election of any party coalition in United Nations history in the 2524 election cycle.
Political Figures
Marcus Akinsanya (b. 2451) [United States of America (USA)]- A US and UN diplomat from New London, Connecticut who came up through the US' Department of State civil service. Son of a test engineer at General Dynamics Electric Boat Space Systems. As UN Special Ambassador for Arms Control, was the driving force on the UN side behind the 2490 Landigal Protocol on Arms Reduction, the successor to 2465’s largely toothless Treaty of Newport, and the subsequent 2491 Landigal Protocol on Limitation of Naval Armament. By 2494, appointed US Ambassador to the United Nations, a position he would remain in until running afoul of the Liu administration in 2507, who would ask for his resignation.
Edward 'Ted' Kennedy (b. 2453) [United States of America (USA)]- No relation to the Kennedy family of Massachusetts and American political fame, also known as 'Ted Kennedy, No Relation', or 'TKNR' for short. American Delegate to the United Nations General Assembly from 2503 to 2527, from the Partnership for Prosperity and Progress' Federal-Democratic Party. Former Governor of California. Known to be personable and charismatic, if prone to gaffes at times; despite not being related, he does bear a striking resemblance to US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Formerly regarded as the preeminent prankster of the UN General Assembly, though one particularly notable practical joke gone too far resulted in a lawsuit that ended this streak for good.
Military Personnel
ADM Chandra Jimoh (b. 2415) [Federal Republic of Nigeria (NGA)]- The ‘Mother of the Modern Navy’ and the officer primarily responsible for the development and implementation of the ‘Fluid Battlegroup’ doctrine in the Unified Naval Command. A talented improvisor, Jimoh served as the Commanding Officer of the Unified Naval Command Third Fleet’s DESRON 71 during the Maybe War of 2470 with a fearsome record, particularly making her mark at the Battle of BR Piscium with her destroyer squadron emerging victorious despite lacking support from capital warships and being outnumbered 3:1. Having long raised alarm bells regarding the inflexibility of United Nations doctrine and command structure, she found a mentor and friend in Admiral Alyssa Hilgraves, who saw to it that the then-Captain would find her way to the flag billet of Commodore following the cessation of hostilities— and that she would find herself the chairperson of the Commission on Naval Grand Strategy, or the Jimoh Commission. Its 2472 report was damning, condemning the UNC for repeated failings at every level to allow its COs enough tactical leeway to adapt to the strategic picture, a dramatic overcorrection from the laissez-faire approach the Military Staff Committee had taken to the various national militaries during the War for Independence. The aftermath of the Report would see Jimoh spearhead a charge towards ‘fluidity’ and adaptability in the UN military, with her efforts being largely successful and the ‘Fluid Battlegroup’ first being postulated as of 2474, a framework that was fully implemented by the 26th century. She would retire an Admiral in 2505.
COMO Jacob Starling (b. 2458) [Ganymede Confederation (GNY)]- A controversial figure, Starling is most notable for his leadership of the Naval Policy Working Group, aka the ‘Carrier Mob’, a group of UNC and UN Intelligence Community personnel advocating for changes to UN defense procurement strategy to orient them more towards the procurement of large, extremely capable supercarrier platforms. The descendant of one of the ringleaders of the Ganymede Rising of 2325, many conspiracy theories spread about then-Captain Starling and his Working Group as a whole, ranging to them being Minervan plants intending to bankrupt and destroy the UN from within, to them being pawns of a deep state intent on puppeteering events from behind the scenes. Starling and his Working Group would fight their way through scrutiny to shape UNC procurement policy and secure the funding necessary to fund the THARSIS-Class supercarriers, and would be rewarded by becoming the pre-commissioning Executive Officer of the then-PCU THARSIS (SCV-001) in 2512, a position he would hold on the commissioned vessel under the command of Commodore Alex Martine of the Martian Federation Navy until he took command of her himself in 2519 following his return from a brief paternity leave of absence in early to mid 2518.
Private Citizens
Harlan Liu (b. 2405) [Commonwealth-Republic of Australia (AUS)]- The preeminent contract lawyer of the 25th century, renowned for an uncanny ability to walk away with what he wanted when he wanted it. After being hired out of Apple-Disney's Contracts division by Martian defense giant Nakos Precision, climbed up to the top to become Chief Contracts Officer of the corporation. Architect of the Hoplite-Six soldier systems contract, a critical lifeline for a faltering Nakos in what was known as the defense industry's 'Starving Days' in the 2480s, making him perhaps the single most reviled person to the UN Joint Forces Board's Procurement Office in light of the project's historic cost overruns. Retired in 2497, and would serve as a member of Nakos' Board of Directors until company financial woes forced a merger with fellow Martian defense juggernaut Huntwell Systems in 2533.