A Wounded Earth
 

With the conclusion to the Third World War, the CN collapsed. Its remaining member countries seemed to be more than willing to see it die. The damage that the CN had done to the planet, however, was immeasurable. Nothing could compare to the death & destruction which the Earth had recently experienced. It was with this in mind then, that the UN decided not to pursue a witch hunt & prosecute the leaders of CN member nations. Having said that, individual nations, namely Syria & the USA, decided bring justice to its leaders themselves for their decisions of the past.

The most vengeful of these prosecutions was in Syria. Its parliament, usually a mere rubber stamp for Syria’s President, acted almost immediately after the cease-fire with the UN. Charging the President with numerous crimes, as well as treason, the President was removed from office & was dead a month later. To ensure that no legal appeal could be launched, or any other method of overturning parliament’s decision such as a coup, the President was executed the day after the trial. The Syrian parliament then pushed through many reforms in order for that country to join the ranks of democratic states. And like everyone else who were members of the CN, Syria then rejoined the UN.

If the political fallout in Syria was deemed harsh, however, it was nothing compared to what happened in the United States. Congress, having already started impeachment proceedings against Drache, decided to continue with them. This was besides the fact that he was dead & Vice President Michelle Harvey had replaced him as President. Yet, after two days of impeachment hearings, Congress overwhelmingly found Drache guilty as charged. Needless to say all of the proceeding wars of the last three or so years were blamed on Drache. Not only was he, thus, removed from the record books as the American President, he was furthermore found guilty of treason. As a result of this charge, he was given the death penalty. Although this seemed ridiculous to many, it was nonetheless a message to the world for reconciliation.

To further this attempt in foreign relations, the new President achieved two records. The first was President Harvey was the first woman ever to become President of the United States. Having joined the Drache ticket for his second term, Harvey had served as a loyal deputy all through Drache’s Administration until his death. Unfortunately this lead to Harvey’s second historical achievement. After Congress had finished its business with Drache, it then turned on President Harvey. After being in the White House for barely a month, Congress found Harvey guilty of numerous crimes, the leading one being "crimes against humanity". She was thus removed from office to be replaced by the Speaker of the House one Peter Goodwin (as a new Vice President  had not been appointed yet).

The new President immediately committed America to the UN & world peace. In doing so, Goodwin released $500 billion in funding to the UN in order to help with the massive problems several countries still faced thanks to the recent wars. This was besides the fact that the United States needed ever cent it had in order to rebuild itself after the destruction it suffered from the First World Nuclear War. Having said that, this gesture by Goodwin helped enormously in easing the hate many countries had towards America.
 

Picking Up The Pieces
 

Even though America had rejoined the UN, the United States could never retake its previous prominent position. Other than the fact that New York had been destroyed & was far from being rebuilt, the rest of the world simply would not allow it. Times had changed dramatically & the UN was no longer the body which it once was. In fact it had changed so much, no one was certain of anything UN any more, apart from the fact that it was now headquartered in Geneva. Other than that certainty, little else was as it had been transformed into a defacto world government. As a result, it did many things akin to a national government including the authority to run armies as it saw fit. And it still had these armies too.

Even though the 2nd UN Army had taken a beating around Jerusalem, it was still an impressive force numbering around 150 000 troops. The 1st UN Army, on the other hand, was in much better shape. Unlike their CN counterparts, though, they remained operational after the conclusion to the Third World War. Whilst the Americans were sent thankfully home, the UN forces remained. And it was just as well. Trouble began brewing in Africa, which thankfully had missed much of the destruction suffered elsewhere. But it seemed that the situation there might change.

The UN, however, were fast to act, unlike in previous times when it never had the power to act. Immediately the 2nd UN Army was sent to the African trouble spots along with two corps of the 1st UN Army. Furthermore, in recognition of the splitting up of the 1st Army, the part left behind in the Middle East was renamed the 3rd UN Army. This new army would take over, more or less, the duties which the CN border guards conducted previously, although local involvement by the various nations "guarded" was requested. As a result, not only were Russians deployed in the 3rd UN Army, but nations such as Israel, Jordan, Egypt & even Syria were worked within its ranks.

Thankfully, the UN’s operations in Africa were highly successful, as were their other operations around the world. Of the military ones, Korea proved to be the showpiece. Here, 80 000 Americans were still trapped & now had nowhere, but home, to go. Not really knowing, though, what their intensions where, or Korea’s for that matter, the new 4th UN Army, mostly made up of Japanese, but included some Thai, Vietnamese & Chinese troops, landed on the tip of southern Korea at the port of Pusan. The Koreans wisely offered no resistance as likewise the American troops. Soon thereafter, 80 000 thankful troops were on their way home.

Other UN operations were also as important, but involved far more time, effort & resources. The environmental damage caused by the numerous wars, especially the three nuclear conflicts, was simply unimaginable. Furthermore, no one really knew where to begin. Whether it be a massive unprecedented clean-up at the sites of the nuclear explosions, to dealing with the nuclear winter, no one knew. Having said that, the UN was not paralysed. Utilising the resources of its members, countries went to work around the globe doing what they could, whether it be like Australia supplying foodstuffs, Japan supplying electronics or America supplying money, each did what they could. Through accident more so than design, decontamination & reconstruction gained the higher attention than nuclear winter, but at least the nuclear winter was not as bad as first feared.

When the issue of nuclear winter was first raised back in the 1980s, a number of factors were in place which influenced the scientists at the time. Basically it was because of the Cold War & the number of nuclear weapons around. Since the 1990s, however, the Cold War was over & numerous treaties had been signed between previous enemies. These treaties, thankfully, began to limit the number of nuclear weapons & delivery systems the signatories could have. By the new century, the nuclear arsenals had dropped dramatically, although the ICBMs themselves had become more accurate, not to mention the fact that the latest nuclear devices themselves involved technology which reduced the amount of radiation created upon detonation whilst keeping the same destructive force. Thus, although a nuclear winter was created, come the three nuclear wars, it was never on the scale previously theorised during an earlier time & circumstance.

Having said all that, it did not mean things were all that great for the inhabitants of planet Earth - especially for those in & around the war zones.  Apart from radioactive contamination, which usually lead to sickness if not death, there were other after effects which lasted for decades. The first one was sterilisation of millions of people. Thus the first post-war generation was not overly large as millions of people could no longer reproduce. But that was not the leading trouble - it was cancer. This would become a global problem within five years after the war, with rates skyrocketing for a further five years afterwards. The UN, though, poured billions of dollars into medical research &, fundamentally for future generations, various cures were discovered. And it was just as well, for the ozone layer had suffer tremendously from nuclear contamination. Hence, just as the radiation caused cancers had been brought under control, skin cancers began to rise quickly. Thankfully, by the time skin cancer increases became an epidemic, a cure had been discovered.
 

A Brave New World
 

Due this global rebuilding phase, it should not come as a surprise that reforms swept through many nations & the UN. Having already been transformed by the period of the Seven Years, the UN continued to reform itself. Basically, due to the massive projects being conducted around the world, it simply had to change & keep changing. Countries everywhere had to, not only coordinate & cooperate in their efforts, but a body was required to at least oversee what was happening globally. The southern hemisphere, due to the fact that it missed most of the war, did little if any rebuilding, but as suggested before, it became the resource supplier for the damaged countries of the northern hemisphere, as in Europe, Asia & North America, all sorts of rebuilding programs were under way.

Most of the rebuilding programs were, without doubt, in Europe. Even though a large proportion of the European Union had survived intact, Britain, France & Germany  had suffered greatly. Furthermore, Russia had more or less been destroyed. As a result, it was to these countries which the UN was mostly involved. Nonetheless, China too had, by necessity, been forced to get involved with various UN programs due to the damage which it had suffered from nuclear attack. The United States, on the other hand, suffered the least from the nuclear wars &, due to its massive industrial capability, needed the least help from the UN. Having said that, it still, by the huge rebuilding task ahead even for the USA, required UN assistance with its rebuilding programs.

Out of all this, though, the most symbolic rebuilding project was Jerusalem. Destroyed by an Israeli nuclear bomb at the end of the Third World War, countries from far & wide sent contingents to the city in an international effort to rebuild it. Regardless of religion, countries saw the sacrifice of Jerusalem as a reminder to the world of what can take place due to hatred, suspicion, intolerance, ignorance & racism. Everything that was an enemy to the human race was symbolised by the Holy City’s destruction. The UN hoped, that by having the entire world involved with rebuilding Jerusalem, then the evil’s of the past may well be left in the past.

As a consequence of all this international activity involving the UN, the international body, as said, changed. At first they were little changes, but as the nations of the world cooperated in peace & trust, a new hope grew among the peoples of the Earth. Most no longer hated their neighbours as many saw for the first time that they had, by far, more in common with them than otherwise. Various cooperative regions, somewhat similar to the EU, began to emerge, but the most fundamental step for everyone was the transformation of the UN into The Commonwealth of the Federation of Earth Nations, or put more simply, the Earth Commonwealth. At its most fundamental core, a new central government, albeit in a federation structure where individual countries still enjoyed their sovereign rights, came into being on 1 January 2050.

The underlying ethos of the Earth Commonwealth was basically summed up by its first President Ismal Gideon. Born a day before Jerusalem was destroyed, Gideon was born into a family of Arab-Jewish Christians in a hospital on the outskirts of the Holy City. The family, including the baby boy, survived the explosion, although they had to, like so many others, endure the post-nuclear war world. And like many others, the family realised that the ways of the past were over & came to believe in peace for all peoples of all  nations. As a result, Ismal joined the UN at the age of 18 & his career never looked back. And just like Gideon’s rise to the UN Presidency was truly a golden moment in history, so too the Human Race would enter the greatest golden period of its existence - one thousand years of peace, prosperity & above all love.
 
 

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