United Nations Is a Super Power: Difference between revisions

 

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* The UN in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'', having undergone heavy reforms following the Second Impact and the Valentine Treaty of February 2001. To illustrate, ''all'' of the world's national militaries are explicitly under direct control of the UN - and are effectively ''subordinate'' to [[Government Agency of Fiction|UN Special Agency]] [[State Sec|NERV]].

* The U.N. in ''[[Super Dimension Fortress Macross]]'', whose rise into a [[One World Order]] was kickstarted by the title spaceship's arrival on Earth, and was ultimately renamed to "Earth U.N. Government".

* In ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'', the UN starts off like its real world counterpart: lacking influence and mostly dealing with humanitarian efforts. Once the power blocs begin to work together, a joint military force is formed under the aspects of the UN. Eventually, the superpowers reform the UN into the Earth Sphere Federation.

 

* In [[Marvel Comics]], SHIELD wavers back and forth between being a UN peacekeeping force and being affiliated with the USA exclusively.

 

* The UN is militarized in ''[[The Animatrix]]'', (and is apparently far more powerful by this time) as a direct result of humanity uniting against the Machines.

 

* The U.N. was depicted this way in ''[[Left Behind]]'', which is why the [[Anti Christ]] went for a job as Secretary General. Hilariously, it's treated as though the United Nations has ''always'' been this powerful. (For why, see [[Conspiracy Theories]]).

* This is the Case in [[Daniel Keys Moran]]'s ''Tales of the Continuing Time'' cycle. The French have begun to dominate the UN, and the peacekeeping forces are now known and feared as ''peaceforcers''.

** It should be noted that this UN is ''not'' the same organization, but rather a development of the Internet Engineering Task Force (yes) that took on the responsibilities and form of the UN after the post-Singularity Earth had settled down (i.e. suitably modified for a world of ''tens of thousands'' of states rather than 193).

* Larry Niven's ''[[Known Space]]'' has the UN develop into a planetary government.

* [[Poul Anderson]]'s ''The Psychotechnic League'' has the UN reforming into a superpower after a nuclear conflict in 1958. However, many nationalists oppose this, and the UN sends special agents ("UNMen") to defuse threats. Unlike some other examples, the UN are the good guys.

* David Feintuch's ''[[Seafort Saga]]'' has the UN as the governing body of Earth and its colonies. Oddly enough, it's society is akin to Napoleonic-era Britain: Swearing in public can lead to legal trouble, The Church is an important factor of life, and there are legal duels.

* ''[[The Forever War]]''

 

* The 2005 revival of ''[[Doctor Who]]'' imagines the UN having much more control, organization, and respect than it does in real life, what with controlling the launch of nuclear weapons and issuing global advisories during alien invasions and worldwide crises. Ironically, for real-life political reasons, super-spy/alien-fighting organization UNIT is no longer part of the United Nations.

* Subverted by ''[[Babylon 5]]'': The UN wasn't turning into this fast enough for the big dogs of 22nd-century Earth, so they established the stronger Earth Alliance to replace it, and crushed the holdouts. Being [[The Federation]] in its most realistic form, it continues to have UN-ish elements, like preserving national states back on Earth.

 

* The USN in the ''[[Jovian Chronicles]]'' is an independent military peace-keeping and police force descended from the UN.

* ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'' had the New United Nations which came about when the US, EU, and Russia decided that they wanted international law to have some actual teeth and support for democratic principles. That lasted about 40 years until an alien invasion caused the NUN to turn into the New Earth Government police state to fight for survival in a [[Lovecraft Lite]] setting.

* The default setting for ''[[GURPS]] Supers'' -- ''GURPS International Super Teams'' -- featured a UN with a monopoly on clean fusion power and enough of a spine to use it as an enticement to discourage member nations from establishing super-powered militaries.

 

* The UN Peacekeepers faction in ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', which - like any other faction - you can develop from a single colony into [[One World Order|a world government]].

* The United Nations in ''[[Halo]]'' founded both [[One World Order|the Unified Earth Government]] (UEG) and the UN Space Command (UNSC); the UEG absorbed its parent organization into one of its branches, but was itself eventually subsumed during the Human-Covenant War — by the ''UNSC'', which now rules all of humanity in the Milky Way galaxy.

* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' has UNATCO, the "United Nations Anti-Terrorist Coalition", which while on the surface, seems to be a world police force hosted by the UN, is {{spoiler|pretty much the beginnings of a military for a one-state world.}} The UN itself apparently has much more power in the 2050s, since it appears holds sway over politics in nations, as one character uses the term, "UN-governed nations." The UN's influence got to be so bad, that China left it sometime before the game, and is [[China Takes Over the World|arguably better off for it.]] Conversations and flavor text materials in the game suggest that much of this came about because citizen confidence in local sovereign states has severely waned in the wake of ecological and economic disasters, weakening those states, which in turn causes them to increasingly rely on the UN to maintain their influence, consolidating effective power there. This in turn reduces citizen confidence in those states further, leading to widespread discontentment and open civil war in first world nations.

* ''[[Mission Critical]]'' is based on the idea of UN waging a war with [[The Alliance]] (which includes US) over AI research and slowly winning thanks to superior [[Attack Drone]] technology. UN believes that AI research will lead to Armageddon and wishes to ban it worldwide, while the Alliance pretty much takes a page out of Patrick Henry's book (i.e. "Give me liberty or give me death").

 

* The ''United Nations of Sol'' in ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' is the primary human military power in the galaxy and has several [[The Battlestar|Battleplates]] the size of Manhattan that can crack planets. Also the protagonists frequently end up entangled in their top-secret research projects.

** There is also "The League of Galactics", which by context is taken about as seriously as the League of Nations would be were it still around.

 

* In the ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'', the UN gains actual political power through its control of alien technology (when the alien traders visited earth, they'd only negotiate with 'the planet's government' and not with any individual nation on the planet). Are you a world leader and want your nation to have access to room-temperature superconductors, compact fusion reactors, and miracle drugs that cure cancer? Better toe the UN line then...

* ''[[The Onion]]'' published a story about [http://www.theonion.com/articles/un-acquires-nuclear-weapon,2638/ United Nations acquiring a nuclear weapon] so they "will no longer be ignored".