Rise of the Reds Canon Fodder, Episode 2, Pure Story Content Options

[MARS]

On today's second episode of Canon Fodder, I shall present you a map with the most important factions and organisations of the ROTR setting in 2045, just prior to the outbreak of the Russo-European War.
In addition, I will shed some light on what happened to the Middle East and South Asia during and after the Global War On Terror.

The Middle Eastern Council

Mere days after the infamous chemical rocket attack on Tel Aviv in July 2025, the Global Liberation Army made its next move to open up a new theatre of war in the Middle East: After years of corruption and brutal, sectarian violence in Iraq, the loathed US-backed government was finally toppled when GLA forces led by Anwar Sulaymaan, one of Deathstrike's most trusted partners in the region launched an assault on Baghdad. The fall of the government prompted the United States to mount another expedition into the Gulf country which was dubbed Operation 'Final Justice'.

Amidst the fighting between US and GLA forces, the long-time enemies Saudi Arabia, itself an ally of the United States, and Iran, one of the few remaining partners of the Russian Federation in the region, started waging a proxy war via a variety of militant groups before they got directly involved themselves. What followed was an unrestrained spread of unprecedented violence across the entire Gulf region: Soon, a group of high-ranking Iranian officials fell out with the rest of the leadership and pledged support to the GLA, effectively splitting the country between the loyalists who maintained that Iran should present itself as a unified national entity in the struggle against the 'Great Satan' and the extremists, who sought to 'integrate' the country into the a broader front against all foreign influence in the entire Middle East under the leadership of the GLA.

Eventually, the United States increased their military efforts even further and invaded Iran, resulting in a three-way battle between them, the loyalists and the extremists, who were accused of collaboration with the enigmatic 'Dr. Thrax' in the development of biological weapons. What followed was the costliest war the Middle East had ever seen: Hundreds of thousands, even millions died as more and more countries got dragged into the conflict. The pent up anger against local government and neighbouring states had been growing for decades and was now released in a cataclysmic battle that led to the nigh-total destruction of the region's infrastructure and resources. In the end, the United States cracked under the pressure of their own population and withdrew while both Iran and Saudi Arabia resorted to nuclear and chemical weapons in a final, spiteful act of violence that changed the geo-political landscape forever.

By the mid 2040s, most of the ensuing civil wars and brushfire conflicts had calmed down, if only due to sheer exhaustion and the new leaders of almost twenty different countries entered a series of tiresome negotiations. Whilst some of them still clung to the idea that the conflict had been forced upon them by the foreign powers, most of the more level-headed leaders realised that the GLA had abused the disunity of the Middle Eastern nations for its own agenda. The talks resulted in the creation of the Middle Eastern Council, a kind of 'Middle Eastern United Nations' with no overarching leadership or goal aside from restoring order and stability by means of diplomatic dialogue and humanitarian relief. Having been left largely untouched by the previous war and snubbed by the Europeans, the Republic of Turkey found itself in a strong position to negotiate between the other countries and embarked on a series of peacekeeping operations in the fight against the GLA remnants. Meanwhile, Iran had turned into the Republic of Persia under the leadership of a secular regime which went on to restore some of the old ties with the United States while the holy cities on the Arabian peninsula were ceded to a new state that would solely exist to safeguard the region's cultural heritage for each and all of its inhabitants regardless of confession, nationality or ideology.

The Bangalore Pact

For decades, the governments in New Delhi and Islamabad had been at each other's throat over territorial disputes, nuclear weapons and even the very existence of Pakistan itself. But the threat of the Global Liberation Army forced the two bitter enemies to put their animosities aside: Ever since the NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, Pakistan's western regions had become a fighting ground between the government forces and their American allies on the one side and the dreaded Taliban militia and various tribal forces on the other. As the years went by, the distrust between America and Pakistan became greater and greater after an escalating series of drone strikes and commando operations in the 2010s which claimed the lives of many innocents and violated the territorial sovereignty of the nation.

This alienation between two supposed allies eventually drove a sizeable number of Pakistani citizens into the ranks of the Global Liberation Army, which declared war on what they regarded as a treacherous puppet government in Islamabad. The ensuing wars in the Middle East and the sudden retreat of American forces from the region left the Pakistani government wide open to the wrath of the people, leaving the leadership with a cruel choice between the devil and the deep blue sea: Either capitalise on the existing relationships with the assertive People's Republic of China at the risk of being marginalised as a puppet state like so many others before in South-East Asia - or come to terms with the Indian neighbours in an attempt to turn the nation's historical enemy into an ally and stand united against common adversaries?

After the humiliating loss of its southern territories to Baloch separatists in 2033, the government did not have any popularity left to lose and subsequently chose the second option. Soon, reluctant trade agreements and security partnerships between India and Pakistan were established. The cooperation remained awkward and strained for years to come until order returned to the region. In 2037, Pakistan managed to reclaim its lost territory in the South, while the Indian government agreed on a provisional solution to the Kashmir dispute by turning the region into a special zone under a joint Indo-Pakistani administration and sharing the local resources evenly among the two countries, effectively defusing the threat of a nuclear exchange.

At the same time, India had become a vital trade partner for the Chinese, but the political relationship between the two never became truly cordial: Central Asia was long split between three spheres of influence - the Russian, the Chinese and the Indian - and despite their interconnected economies, both China and India continued to compete over influence in the region. Motivated by the fear of Chinese annexation, Bhutan and Nepal entered an alliance with India while the pro-Chinese government of Bangladesh collapsed under the pressure of the street a mere two years after the country's entry into the Greater Asian Peoples Alliance. India saw the opportunity and supported the uprising in an effort to seize control of the Eastern gateway into the sub-continent from Chinese control. The reaction of the Party government was predictable furious, but at the end of the day, neither Beijing nor New Delhi wanted to risk ruining their economic relationship with a military escalation. As a result, the Chinese abandoned their plans to further enlarge their domain for the time being and decided to 'consolidate' their control over the remaining GAPA territories instead.

The events still left a strain on the diplomatic relationship between the two juggernauts, prompting India to initiate a number of high-profile military deals with the Russian Federation in order to be prepared for a worst case scenario: Most prominently, the Indian Army received a shipment of 200 units of the HT-28SM2 'Vidhwansak', an export model of the famous Sentinel tank reconfigured for India's typical terrain and climate whilst several batteries of S-300 surface to air missiles were stationed in the Himalayan border region. By 2047, the leaders of India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and even Pakistan signed the founding treaties of the Bangalore Pact which created a shared economic area and a permanent military security alliance between the nations of the sub-continent.

[Zeke]

Not sure if it's an error, but there seems to be a very small patch of ECA territory in South America

[wb21]

French Guiana, I think.

[Svea Rike]

And Australia is like "WTF mate"? You forgot to include the Australia-New Zealand alliance (forgot its name) from a previous fan-fic or is it not considered canon?

[Warpath]

Not sure if it's an error, but there seems to be a very small patch of ECA territory in South America

French Guiana, that's where the Russians took control of a Solaris Relay.

Nice map, huh, I though the Australia and the Philippines are American allies.

[__CrUsHeR]

Was very good MARS, I was working on a new story for the India but his version of events was much better, I loved you mention the purchase of the Sentinels.

[MARS]

I only included alliances that can be considered majorly important. Technically, the Commonwealth would be in there as well, but it'd actually overlap with a few others and the fact that Australia or the Philippines have good relations with the US does not automatically mean that they are part of a firmly defined alliance. Remember that the US basically had to restart all of their former relationships after the withdrawal. With that in mind, they've actually come quite far in the 12 years since the creation of the NAU and this map is clearly dated for 2045. During the course of the Third World War, borders and alliances might have changed even further.

Overall, I did try to take some of the already posted fan-fictions into account while still leaving some room for interpretation. The social changes that occured in India according to Crusher's fic could still be quite valid in this one for example, and we really should only start with whole whole 'canon seal of approval' thing by the time we add lore pages to the Wiki, cos that's where all the stuff is going to end up eventually.

[Shiro]

I only don't get how Switzerland can be neutral after all this still.

[Svea Rike]

Hm, so Georgia is a US ally, how come? Seing as they are closely related with Russia in terms of demographics and geography, I wonder if it puts some pressure on the United States. Was US client states invaded in WWIII?

This post has been edited by swedishplayer-97: 12 Jul 2013, 21:36

[Warpath]

Hm, so Georgia is a US ally, how come? Seing as they are closely related with Russia in terms of demographics and geography, I wonder if it puts some pressure on the United States. Was US client states invaded in WWIII?

Nah, Russia's military are still focused in the invasion of Europe, or in the Russian-Chinese border I believe, though they might have invaded American-aligned Georgia.

I only don't get how Switzerland can be neutral after all this still.

No one wants to invade a country where whole mountains are rigged to blow, where every man literally has military issue weapons, and where they hold their money (Swiss Bank).

This post has been edited by Warpath: 12 Jul 2013, 22:42

[MARS]

Georgia would have its reasons to be afraid of a resurgent Russia and after their recovery, the US would be interested to have it as a partner in the region in the same way as they have Israel in the Middle East and Japan/Korea in the Pacific. Russia and its allies would probably put some pressure on Georgia, but if there's one country that'd still be sufficiently open to Western influence if it guarantees them a level of support, it'd be them. Hell, some nutballs in RL want to get them into NATO and even the EU as it is. Also, let's keep in mind that Suvorov is not Stalin: He doesn't -want- to rule through intimidation and force. If a country doesn't want to be part of his gang, that doesn't automatically mean that he's automatically going to send the tanks in. When he heard that Georgia would still prefer to be allied to the US, he probably shrugged it off and was like 'well, their loss I guess'. Stylistically, it is also supposed to highlight that the US have changed their foreign policy from having several allies with various different agendas of their own to having just a few 'key' allies like Israel in the Middle East, Japan/Korea in the Pacific and Georgia in the Caucasus.

Asw for Switzerland, they are still neutral in the sense that haven't joined the ECA, but that doesn't mean that there's no interaction between the two parties. Even today's Switzerland has a set of agreements with the EU and after the creation of the ECA, the Swiss-'European' relationships seem to have recovered, with Switzerland willing to advise Willem on the construction of fortifications and providing a refuge for European works of art during the war.

[Admiral FCS]

From the looks of it, I'm assuming that the rest of Southeast Asia as well as Oceania may get featured in a later update.

I'm also quite interested in how Central America is doing... hopefully it's not too messy, considering how they could seek help from either the NAU or the SAP.

[Anubis]

I'm only gonna say this - even under a 'Europe betrayed us' in the RotR events, Romania has a huge stance of Russo-fobia. The idea that we would once again join Russia in any form of alliance is as less probable as it would be to be hit by the moon in the next decade. The past of our country and what we had to swallow during the communist days, seeded in Romanians a deep hatred and it will take many generations for us to get over it, even if under current world situation that is as retarded as it gets. But yeah, while history wise that map would make sense, if Romania would ally itself with Russia any time in the next decades there would probably be another revolution here. Social paranoia and old wounds make a hell of a catalyst.

This post has been edited by Anubis: 13 Jul 2013, 10:52

[BLGMGL]

Errr... Although it's just a game, still it's painful to see Mongolia as part of China.
May be I should considering joining GLA since RF is not going to intervene?

Actually, it's similar to situation mentioned by Anubis. But instead of Rusofobia, Mongolia has a big Sino-fobia.

This post has been edited by blgmgl: 14 Jul 2013, 12:33

[Kalga]

Errr... Although it's just a game, still it's painful to see Mongolia as part of China.
May be I should considering joining GLA since RF is not going to intervene?

Actually, it's similar to situation mentioned by Anubis. But instead of Rusofobia, Mongolia has a big Sino-fobia.

I'm sure that General Jin has the situation under control over there...

[Overdose]

I'm rather suprised the SAP doesn't have a stake in Africa. We're really influential there, especially with the portuguese speaking countries. They really trust us too.

[MARS]

The African allegiances are still heavily based on your original lore to keep things consistent and uncluttered on the continent. The only things that truly changed by this point is the loss of Russia's territory, the expansion of the GLA and the appearance of what seems to be the East African Federation. It may also be fair to point out that the SAP is the newest and also least militarised of th major powers whereas China, Europe, America and previously Russia all supported their African interests with a local military presence.

[Darkfire Angel]

I am a bit suprised that Lestho is still a seperate state and not absorbed into South Africa, there's a large movement in the country to have them become another province/state currently.

If no one has any objections I think I might write some Fanon regarding South Africa, I'm even more keen now that I see how close the GLA is to the north.

[MARS]

Sure, feel free to write a fic. South Africa having the GLA right at its doorstep in the east seems like an interesting hook.

[Streanger]

Once again it would be desirable to mention Georgia in the given context. First, it is not favourable to Russia to have at itself near by the state which is taking place under foreign influence (in this case US). You see in addition, such the state - satellite it is possible to use as not bad jumping-off place for attack (in our case, on southern borders of Russia and if to recollect, that USA is ally ECA in subject conflict ROTR it becomes especially actual). In the slightest degree competent politics it understands anyone (and if to recollect, that on a place of selling bastards in Russia in authority there came patriots they simply could notice it) and will try to liquidate this threat (I do not think, it would be pleasant if Russia or any their other competitor could create something similar to Americans, is direct at their borders). I assume, that races Georgia again appeared under Americans in the pre-war period could take place diplomatic (and can and not so, the blessing the ground for this purpose is present) the conflict to Russia. That up to Georgia as the states it by and large also is not necessary for Russia. The only thing, than can brag Georgia so it is export fault and mineral water, moreover the certain opportunities by way of tourism. However simply it is not necessary for Russia of anything of it, however where influence in region and safety of own borders is more valuable...

[__CrUsHeR]

I'm rather suprised the SAP doesn't have a stake in Africa. We're really influential there, especially with the portuguese speaking countries. They really trust us too.

Unfortunately the countries of South America have taken a long time to get organized as a block and claim a portion in Africa.

[SpiralSpectre]

Awesome to see many ZH loose ends concerning the Middle East got wrapped up. Like the second invasion of Iraq got a neat explanation explaining its background. Also good to see Sulaymaan directly involved, reminding us how badass he can be (wish this could be in his MTG lol).

If I may say so the explanations are also pretty diplomatic that wouldn't directly piss off anyone from that region. Like splitting Iran between loyalists and GLA supporters is a great idea. The following ZH invasion of Iran, which could be a sensitive issue concerning RL situations, got handled nicely. It's probably a good thing that regions currently under conflict, like Syria or Egypt, didn't get mentioned. It can be an unnecessary risk to go predicting about current hot conflicts.

Interesting to see how ROTR Middle East and GLA have been clearly separated. Always nice to hear the region has some hope for a future instead of being beyond any possibility. Always nice to see Turkey doing something after ECA kicked them out. Somewhat surprising to see them outside US's sphere of influence while Georgia as part of that sphere but it's an interesting take, personally I like it.

The Bangalore Pact is another awesome idea. It further helps to decentralise the attention from Europe. It adds an interesting, tactical regional rival for China the same way SAP is there for US. Interesting to see BP is also militarily backed by Russia, same as SAP. Ofc BP's Russian backing doesn't seem as big as Russia's backing for SAP.

Such an alliance between India and Pakistan would always be frowned upon. But the detailed explanation of Pakistan's dilemma and disastrous situation during the GLA war makes it feel like a happy surprise instead. After all Pakistani government was on the verge of losing everything and later the alliance remained awkward and stained for years. India's love-hate relation with China feels unique even in a world full of love-hate relations. Bangladesh's situation was typical Bangladesh with getting into GAPA and then public pulling them outta there and them getting into the BP.

Personally I half expected the Chinese neighbours, Nepal and Bhutan, to get strong armed overnight into GAPA considering ROTR China's influence. But it's great to see them into the Bangalore pact... otherwise the number of Indian allies would be too small. Would be nice to know more on how they survived annexation but that's nothing major.

Great to see a canon confirmation of the long speculations about the foreign allies of ROTR US. All the expected faces are there - Israel, South Africa, Japan, Korea. Thought Australia and some of Oceania would be there as well but I guess US's reach hasn't re-extended that far yet.

edit - it's okay to add the map to the wiki's timeline page, right?

edit 2 - forgot to mention, feels like the name of the export model Sentinel (Vidhwansak) fits the Sentinel better than it's real name. Than again I am probably being biased.

This post has been edited by SpiralSpectre: 16 Jul 2013, 12:59

[Cobretti]

Great to see a canon confirmation of the long speculations about the foreign allies of ROTR US. All the expected faces are there - Israel, South Africa, Japan, Korea. Thought Australia and some of Oceania would be there as well but I guess US's reach hasn't re-extended that far yet.

MARS said that for the most part overlapping alliances would be listed as neutral. I had Australia as a member of the same Pacific trade bloc/alliance as the US, Japan, Canada, and Korea but its also part of the British Commonwealth. I wouldn't be surprised if it maintained strong ties with both as well as a trade deal with China.

[MARS]

Right, I didn't want to add too many entities to the map and focus on establishing the MEC/BP first. The neutral countries are only neutral in the sense that they don't have a standing military alliance with anyone, but that doesn't rule out the possibility of trade agreements, cordial relationships and so on. The primary reason Australia has been marked as neutral is because I wanted to introduce the Commonwealth in a dedicated update for the UK during the EU/ECA transitional period. Naturally, this map would also see a few revisions as we go along, but for now, it'd be an okay addition to the timeline entry as well.

[Alias]

One thing I just happened to notice on the map – there is a minor problem where peninsular Malaysia is part of the GAPA whereas the parts of Malaysia on Borneo aren't.

This post has been edited by Alias: 16 Jul 2013, 16:00