PREVIEW: staznes XI

@Azale: I would recommend you axe army, navy and air force descriptions, as the description of the military can be implicitly figured out from the units within in it. Will there be a military grade or quality system by the way?

I for one, think credit worthiness (I would recommend renaming that to "credit rating" as that's a bit more formal) is an interesting idea. Would you keep track of government debt too though? Where by the way on the "economy" segment will you keep track of banked EP?

Also, what's going to be under the Technology category? I imagine technology to be a fairly hard thing to quantify.
 
I'd be interested in Nigeria, with all our fancy African princes and over-paying foreign contractors & stuffs. If not, then either Egypt or Pakistan would suffice alsos.
 
Azale, why is everyones country listed in the first page, but it says that Taiwan is open while I have claimed it?
 
Republic of Taiwan



Name: As economic relations between the PRC and the ROC became closer and closer, a war between the two countries would become more costly to the PRC. Many Taiwanese buisnessmen had companies in China and Chinese buisnessmen companies in Taiwan.

Using those economic relations, the leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lee Teng Hunxgia, after he won the elections, declared the independence of Taiwan. He also proposed closer ties with China. China accepted this, as a war would be costly, because of the economic relations and the danger of War with USA. The Penghu, Kinmen, Wuchiu and Matsu Islands and the Pratas Islands and Taiping Island in the South China Sea remained under Taiwanese control.

Constitution: With the change in the name, a new Constitution was created. A strong Presidency was created, based of the USA model. The Parliament of Taiwan is the Taiwanese Senate, a Senate of 500 Representives.

Politics: With the end of the National Identity Question, new Parties emerged in Taiwan. The Communist Party has emerged as the main opposition along with the Republican Party, a conservative Party which supports closer relations with USA. The country is currently led by the Democratic Party, a liberal Party which supports economic relationship with China and military alliance with USA.

OOC: If Shadowbound, as the player of China, does not agree with this, I will change it.
 
No.

The president stressed no division of China's territory and sovereignty would be tolerated and that both sides should uphold the common stand of opposing Taiwan independence and increase their common commitment to the one-China framework, Xinhua said.

"Any separatist attempt for Taiwan independence, which undermines the common interests of the compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Straits, is doomed to fail," he added.
 
Gah, too late for any interesting nation. I suppose Ill express interest in Russia and Turkey in case either player drops, and take Italy in the meantime.
 
If playing Italy, feel free to integrate your BT history with that of Germany.
 
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia​

Domestic Policies
Petroleum: Saudi Arabia's main natural resource is petroleum, lying in reserves on land and in under the sea. An estimated 90% of the economy of Saudi Arabia is based on petroleum (which can be refined into gasoline or kerosene) and petroleum products (mainly petroleum byproducts, such as cyclohexanes and methyl alcohol). Hence, it is Saudi Arabia's interest for there to be more drilling and refining in accordance to our membership in OPEC. However, since OPEC drilling guidelines are based on the amount of proven reserves, and since proven reserves haven't increased in Saudi Arabia, our production remains consistent. Regardless, Saudi Arabia is the world's largest exporter of oil and seems to remain so for the near future.
Economic Cities: Construction is going on for six "economic cities" to be completed in Saudi Arabia by 2020. One of these, the King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC), will be built in the Makkah Province and will consist of an industrial zone, a sea port, residential areas, a sea resort, an educational zone, and a central business district. These economic cities will help diversify the Saudi economy and will help to increase the the per capita income of Saudi cities, to $33,500 by 2020.
Constitution: there is no modern constitution of Saudi Arabia. The Koran and the Sunnah (the teachings of Mohammed P.B.U.H.) were declared to be Saudi Arabia's constitution.
Government: Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy led by King Abdullah. Abdullah's heir apparent is the crown prince Salman bin Abdulaziz. As an absolute monarchy, there are no elections and most of the political intrigue occurs in and around the Saud family. There has been a small movement associated with the Arab Spring movement to liberalize the Sharia law which forms the basis of the legal system in Saudi Arabia, ex. women being allowed to drive.
Demographics: the population of Saudi Arabia is about 25 million people including about 5 million non-nationals. Saudi nationals are 90% Arab. The largest non-national ethnicities are Indian, Pakistani, and Egyptian. 85%-90% of the population is Sunni, while the Shia minority make up the balance. The main Sunni sect is Wahhabism or Salafism.
Education: education in Saudi Arabia is free, Islamic, and segregated. Numerous institutions of higher learning are being founded in Saudi Arabia as the economy is developing.
Climate Change: Saudi Arabia is a party of the Kyoto Protocol, without any defined targets. "Greenhouse gas emissions and global warming are among humanity's most pressing concerns. Societal expectations on climate change are real, and our industry is expected to take a leadership role. We are doing this in Saudi Arabia." However, reductions in greenhouse gasses have to be coupled with stable production of petroleum.

Technology
Development: Saudi Arabia is developing new techniques for oil extraction and refining. Additionally, methods for creating new petrochemicals are being created in Saudi Arabia.
Implementation: Saudi Arabia is implementing its new technology to help with its largest economic sector: petroleum. Moreover, as a developing economy, scientists and engineers are increasing in number to help with the implementation of technology.

Foreign Relations
The United States: Saudi Arabia views the US as an important ally for regional stability and against terrorism.
The United Kingdom: Saudi Arabia and the UK have been allies since the First World War.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the United Nations, the Arab League, OPEC, the G20, and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Military
Saudi Arabia is a top 10 spender for defense (as %age of GDP). The US and the UK are major arms suppliers to Saudi Arabia. Recently, an $60 billion arms deal was passed by the US Congress. The United Kingdom supplies the air force with Tornados and Eurofighter Typhoons.
 
Italy's Projected Future

NOTE: This Manuscript is going to evolve from a point by point analysis of the planned future to a more detailed plan. Eventually. For now, stick with me here. Also bear with the fact that I know little of Italy at the moment so will no doubt be making many mistakes on their current lifestyle.

Culture
Begin moving toward the right wing, nationalistic, militaristic, almost fascist in some ways. Resurgence in media such as movies reflecting this.

Military
Reducing the numbers immediately and instead placing an emphasis on technological advancements. Army becomes least popular and essentially gets shifted and placed in a defensive role while navy and air free increase strike capabilities with Marines and aircraft carriers and long range bombers.

Space
A space program is to be established, set up, and funded generously with the goals of establishing permanent space stations orbiting Earth, the Moon, and Mars all by 2035. Combined with military spending they are to create military and transport craft able to be used in space.

Nuclear/WMDs
A Nuclear Weapons program is to be set up and advanced as far as possible. Goal is to have Italian nukes and ICBMs by end of BT. Same got for WMDs. This is as a result of the intense militaristic culture shift.

Government
Also as a result of the culture shift, the type of government ends up getting changed in the first 5 years or so. What ends up coming into power is more or less a benevolent dictatorship with an 'advisory' committee elected by the provinces of Italy.

Economic Policy
All time lows in taxes are to be set up, and the government is to withdraw from most social welfare programs as a result of the right wing swing. More economic freedom is established, free market economics encouraged, and government subsidies, although mall ones, into growing industries. Encourage a re establishment of a major manufacturing base once again. Establish our own currency again and begin phasing the euro out a much as possible.

Climate Change
Climate Change? Really? Nobody in Italy cares. Its natural for the earth to wing between hot and cold periods. Pollution is cleaned up a bit anyways since it is separate and known to be bad, but no caps on greenhouse gases are instituted or any such nonsense.

Foreign Policy
Aggressive. Anti-Islamic. Pro-Israeli. Anti American. Italy wants North African colonies again. Need I say more? Well yes, I suppose I do unless I want Italy to do some truly stupid things in the BT.

Forces are to be prepared to invade and depose Libya's current government along with Egypt's. Muslim extremists in power? Bad, bad, bad. Assad in Syria is to be aided on the condition he stops antagonizing Israel and hands over all chemical weapon stockpiles. Spain is to be befriended. Hardcore response to any islamic terrorist organizations that pop up in Africa/Middle East. Send troops to Afghanistan to support the secular government. Offer aid to Iraq in stopping an all out civil war and rooting out opponents of democratic government since the Americans have abandoned them. If things in Libya/Egypt get really bad subjugate their governments under the Italian banner as Italian 'colonies' and work on sorting them out the hard way, although be generous and gentle with those who we can be sure of. Make sure the peoples know Italy i only after the bad guys. As proof, if the bad guys ever get eliminated begin pouring money into their economies and developing them as part of Italy.

Withdraw from NATO. Reduce our participation in the EU.

Energy
Oil is to remain at the forefront and our oil reserves are to be utilized as well. However we are to join Germany and France in stepping up to the forefront of ITER as well.


OOC: I realize all of this might not be in line with today's Italy, but bear in mind first that this is unfinished, and also it isn't anywhere near as ridiculous as the projections for America.
 
I don't think you get it and I havn't heard entirely becoming things from other players, so I am rejecting your application. Anymore posts in this thread will be removed by a moderator :)
 


Angola

DOMESTIC AFFAIRS

Political tensions continued to plague Angola long after the end of the civil war in 2002. Despite assertions of "free and fair" elections by both the African Union and the MPLA (the ruling government), more or less every result would be contested by the various opposition parties. UNITA, the primary opposition party, had failed to exceed its ~40% share of the vote in 1992, and reports of voter intimidation and arrests were rampant before every legislative election.

One might still regard this as exceeding expectations, given that the aforementioned 1992 election led to half a million deaths.

In any case, despite the “free and fair” elections, Angola continued to effectively be a one party state, with the MPLA dominating Parliament, and little hope for immediate change. José Eduardo dos Santos, the President of the country since 1979, continued in office through the 2010s. Indeed, the only barrier to him becoming a President for Life was the Angolan constitution, which limited him to a completely reasonable four terms, ending in 2022. Naturally, when this year began to creep up on him, the MPLA looked to amend the constitution to allow him to continue in power for even longer – they were only thwarted by his death in 2020 at the age of 77.

With dos Santos' death, the next in command was unclear – Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, a close relative of the deceased President, had been President of the National Assembly for some time, but Manuel Vicente had been groomed as the successor to dos Santos as his Vice President. At the same time, the power struggle up top concealed a much more important one below.

Despite their strong geographic tendencies during the Civil War (UNITA being primarily relegated to the southeast, and the MPLA centered around Luanda), the politics of the two parties had long been personality-driven affairs. The new power vacuum left so much squabbling over who was in control of the MPLA that they lost sight of the 2020 Parliamentary elections, and forgot to rig them. In a spectacle that must have seemed nearly miraculous to outside observers, they were actually contested. A young, fresh politician out of the southeast, Fernandó Epalanga, managed to bring the presidential vote to a runoff election, only losing to the finally chosen Manuel Vicente there.

In any case, the parliament had to negotiate muddied waters for the first time, as the disparity between the ruling MPLA and its various opponents had been narrowed to a mere 40 seats – contrasting with the previous 130 seat gap. Forced to occasionally interact with their rivals, the various parties suddenly seemed to realize that almost literally everyone in the country was supposedly a social democrat, and that there really wasn't that much to argue about.

Except, of course, who had killed who in the last few decades.

Somehow, things managed to work themselves out. The presence of an actual opposition forced both parties to hold themselves and their members accountable – or at least, to a greater degree than anyone had been before. Corruption, though still rampant, went on the decline, and for once, some of the wealth that the country's vast oil and diamond reserves had been winning went to a larger segment of the population. The recipe for anti-corruption was not a new one, but it had proved hard to implement previously. Peace and the split government changed that.

By the late 2020s, this situation had been normalized enough – with UNITA winning substantial minorities in each election, that there were only a few cries of outrage when the no longer young Epalanga managed to win the first non-MPLA presidency in Angolan history, in 2032.

On the issue of Cabinda, little progress had been made after the attack on the Togolese football team in 2010. Distrust permeated discussions on both sides. Nevertheless, the growing competence and strength of the political opposition quieted many of the fears of Cabinda, especially once the wealth stopped being funneled exclusively to arms and the rest of Angola. By 2030, Cabinda had become an island of modernization, and with enough concessions granted by the government that separation looked unlikely in the far future.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Many had hoped that the peaceful transition of power in Angola would help stabilize the region as a whole, and while to some extent this proved true, it did not prevent the Democratic Republic of the Congo from slipping back into civil war. The renewed conflict, as usual, did not draw much attention from the rest of the world, with some aid being funneled by developed countries to the Congolese government against its eastern rebels. The Angolan government, still firmly in the hands of the MPLA at this point, backed the government forcefully, and contributed numerous forces to the AU military intervention in the region that would eventually quell the rebels in the late 2020s.

The impact of global climate change on the African continent would be much more harsh in the areas immediately adjacent to the Sahara. In southern Africa, by contrast, it would be limited to a fairly minor exacerbation of ongoing drought conditions in certain regions. Unfortunately, the droughts were already quite serious, and the droughts contributed to the destabilization of the DRC. Additionally severely impacted would be Zimbabwe, where Robert Mugabe's death would lead to the collapse of the regime in the late 2010s, sparking a serious of low-level riots and massacres that would smolder for nearly a decade before a new government would be installed.

Angola's increasing stabilization in the 2020s and early 2030s thrust it into a more prominent role among the African Union, contributing numerous soldiers to peacekeeping operations and interventions in the more unstable central regions of Africa, especially Sudan, whose out and out civil war in the late 2020s caught the attention of countries all over the world.

Comparatively enormous investment by the PRC into the African continent, including Angola, cemented ties between the two countries. Good relations continued with the Cuban government, even when that island nation began to moderate in the late 2020s, while close ties with the DRC and Namibia continue to the present day.

ECONOMY

Angola's economy in the 2010s and 2020s continued to grow at a breakneck pace (an almost insane 10% or higher annually, continuing previous trends), primarily on the back of the oil industry, with some help from diamond mining. The former, of course, was not sustainable, and started to go into serious decline in the latter half of the 2020s, especially as the developed world began to transition away from petroleum-based energy. The latter, based on the whims of an incredibly monopolized industry, fluctuated wildly enough that no one wanted to really use it as the basis for their entire economy. Copper, iron, and gold mining proved vital as well, though their earnings never quite reached the heights of the oil boom.

Luckily, the stability afforded by the relative climate of peace allowed Angola to redirect a lot of that wealth back into the economy. A flourishing producer of high-end agricultural goods before the war, the country rebuilt these industries, becoming a leading producer of coffee, bananas, and various other fruits. Chinese, and to a more limited extent, American investment, along with oil and diamond wealth proved a boon: especially as corruption declined in the 2020s, infrastructure spending more than quadrupled, rebuilding damaged roads and rail, and building a surprisingly modern highway system.

Naturally, the dreams of fusion power that more developed countries hoped for had little chance of making any headway in Africa. However, cheap solar technology began to propagate in the late 2010s and early 2020s, and with the development of numerous native African corporations, spread to towns and villages throughout the interior of Angola and its neighbors. Not only did they provide cheap, reliable power, they facilitated the continuing spread of cell phone and wireless technology, enabling widespread non-state-owned media broadcasts. This, along with the utter failure of censorship technology on the part of the MPLA government, has often been credited with the surprising political turn the country took in the early 2020s and beyond.

As has been previously mentioned, Cabinda became a beacon for the region, along with Luanda and other coastal cities. Numerous new accountability measures ensured that their wealth trickled down considerably faster than had been true before – median income of Angolans skyrocketed, soon resembling something more like South Africa than the DRC.
 
@Azale: I would recommend you axe army, navy and air force descriptions, as the description of the military can be implicitly figured out from the units within in it.
I oppose this and favor precisely the opposite: no units and only descriptions. Units imply far too much in the way of standardization and result in a stupid numbers game where one is throwing "divisions" (whatever those are these days) against other divisions or "air wings" or whatever.

---

Having re-read the German submission, I feel compelled to make comment:

Based on these (I feel much more realistic numbers), actual fusion, and only at a research level
"Actual fusion" has been happening in labs since ZETA in 1957. The question is not whether fusion can be done, but whether more energy comes out of it than goes in. It is an engineering question, not a theoretical one. The Sun and the hydrogen bomb are proof that it's possible already. ITER and DEMO are merely one of a small set of programs among dozens investigating the issue.

You mention "Having read up on it in response to SymD’s link, neither really does the American government or navy. If they did they would be funding it properly." Yes, which is why ITER and DEMO have 20-30 year construction timelines and routinely get defunded, yes? Because they are such terribly important government programs and €15 billion is such an absolutely tremendous amount of money.

Throughout your submission you make these little throwaway remarks like "I don't believe," and "in my opinion," and so on, and the simple fact of the matter is unless you have a doctorate in nuclear or plasma physics, you don't know enough to have an informed opinion. For that matter, neither do I! ITER and DEMO are not the only games in town and engineering problems are routinely solved in unpredictable ways. Given that, what matters is less what is "most likely" to succeed, which none of us are qualified to judge, but what is most interesting.

Also: solar power is DC, not AC, and transmitting it from Africa would require a very substantive transformer system, new and undeployed technology, or accepting great transmission losses, making it economically rather impractical per unit energy. And there's no reason for Germany to invest more cyberwarfare than in the Marine given the situation on the European continent unless the objective is, as stated, "illicitly conduct our own industrial espionage to help maintain our research and development edge and to better compete in high-tech world markets," and that will be both very obvious, very expensive, and very looked down upon by the international community at large. This: "Its secondary goals will be to prepare for the systemic shut down of a nation or groups communications (including satellites), financial vehicles and assets, and both civilian and military infrastructure via computing-based attacks as part of a defensive response to attack either upon itself or its allies," is even worse.

---

I also wonder at G4S's tooth-to-tail ratio considering, as a corporation involved in manufacturing and R&D of all manner of military hardware, it must be significantly worse than the 1:10 to 1:20 enjoyed by most modern militaries. Its fighting arm must be quite small indeed. Also: how does it move its assets around the world?
 
Ok. Since Taiwanese indendence is rejected, then ROC will remain the same. Nothing changes, so I see no reason to post a whole post about ROC.
 
That's not exciting at all. Obviously Sarah Palin should become President of the RoC.

Degrees in mechanical and/or electrical engineering, or equivalent knowledge thereof, would also work.
Considering the primary problem with Tokamaks and other MCF solutions tends to be plasma turbulence and instability, probably not. ICF tends to be more optics related. ESCF like the Polywell tends to be weird EM boundary cases. All the other stuff like actually collecting power off the reactions and such are mundane and comparatively trivial.
 
SympD,


High voltage direct current trasmission is already a thing,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current

"For long-distance transmission, HVDC systems may be less expensive and suffer lower electrical losses. For underwater power cables, HVDC avoids the heavy currents required to charge and discharge the cable capacitance each cycle. For shorter distances, the higher cost of DC conversion equipment compared to an AC system may still be warranted, due to other benefits of direct current links."

Regarding the feasibility of the ITER project, the US government is currently backing ITER precisely because they believe it to be the most likely to succeed (to generate commercially viable fusion-based energy). And they are putting their money into it, even at the cost of American research and jobs. Link. Despite what you say about funding, and construction being so long-scale, ITER is currently the best funded fusion research project in the world by a substantial amount. Secondly, a note on the construction times. You are quoting the construction scale for the DEMO and PROTO projects, not ITER. And these are purposefully longer because they need proof of concept from ITER before proceeding.

SymphonyD, I feel that I should be permitted to provide my opinion based on the literature i have read. Especially when i state that it is my opinion. Certainly you and others have done so.

You write,
Given that, what matters is less what is "most likely" to succeed, which none of us are qualified to judge, but what is most interesting.
and i can hardly agree more. Therefore i will no longer make any more arguments about feasibility unless you do first.



Not as an argument in any kind of debate or anything, but i found this interesting:

DESERTEC is a project supported by a foundation of the same name and the consortium Dii (Desertec industrial initiative) created in Germany as a limited liability company (GmbH). The project aims at creating a global renewable energy plan based on the concept of harnessing sustainable power from sites where renewable sources of energy are more abundant and transferring it through high-voltage direct current transmission to consumption centers. All kinds of renewable energy sources are envisioned, but the sun-rich deserts of the world play a special role. By taking into account land and water use, DESERTEC is intended to offer an integrated solution to food and water shortages in the coming decades.



http://www.desertec.org/
http://www.triad.de/de/projekte/2008/konferenz-opener-für-desertec
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desertec
 
High voltage direct current trasmission is already a thing,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-voltage_direct_current
As I also linked. The fact remains, however, that the entire global electrical system is AC, so one would have to at a minimum install HVDC infrastructure to convey power long-distance, if not replace the entire electrical grid with HVDC depending on one's aims. The latter would be of rather greater difficulty than say, switching from an entirely electrical data transmission system to an entirely optical one. It'd be possible, but an expensive undertaking. DESERTEC looks (much) more manageable with AC conversion nodes.

Non-photovoltaic solutions get around it though, as NK mentioned.
 
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