Global Defense Initiative
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The UNGDI, or fully the United Nations' Global Defense Initiative, is a fictional militarized branch of the United Nations which is featured prominently in the Tiberian series of Westwood Studios' Command & Conquer real-time strategy video games. A globalized and multinational military task force, colloquially known and referred to as GDI, the Global Defense Initiative originated from a secret military alliance between the most industrialized and advanced countries under the United Nations umbrella. Sanctioned to become the international community's collective response to the proliferation of the Tiberium substance and the influence of the Brotherhood of Nod society, the Global Defense Initiative was rendered the executive branch of the United Nations Security Council. Their official emblem became the motif of a diving bird of prey, set either against a silvery or a bluish background.
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[edit] Historical overview
[edit] Origins
The Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, originally was a covert multinational special forces group operating under the designation of "Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9"[1]. The concept behind the organization was first proposed within the United Nations Security Council by representatives of Allied countries during the 20th century's Second Great War[2][3], and was in the aftermath of this conflict jointly founded by unspecified numbers of the Council's members as a specialized peace enforcing unit with a mandate to operate worldwide. The unit was outfitted with military as well as political means to be able to silently hamstring anything from local ethnic unrest to regionalized armed conflicts across the globe, and was given as its primary objective the ensuring no fledgling confrontations would ever escalate into a continental or worldwide emergency again. As O.G.E.: B.O.9 repeatedly became deployed throughout the world over the many years, however, rumors about their existence slowly began to seep into the mainstream public consciousness. Eventually, the overseeing Security Council came to the decision that transparency and limited disclosure were the best response to the international media's speculations on the nature and the purpose of the secret unit. The final proverbial straw for this would come when an operation in which the attempted assassination upon Saddam Hussein, in a covert effort to prevent the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, failed miserably and resulted in the death of a large number of agents. This incident, coupled with the rapid spread of a toxic and extraterrestrial substance known as Tiberium, as well as the ever increasing influence of the globalized Brotherhood of Nod society, prompted the Security Council into greatly expanding and revising the mandate as well as the purpose of O.G.E.: B.O.9. The organization was brought out of the shadows, and was restructured in order to make it capable of tackling the threats of the modern ages openly as well as directly. In accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), the United Nations' Global Defense Initiative (UNGDI) was founded at the date of October 12th, 1995. The proposal stated the following:
"The Global Defense Initiative was founded to enforce the United Nations Global Defense Act and uphold the ideals as outlined in the United Nations Charter."
Their first supreme commander became the American Brigadier General Mark Jamison Sheppard.
[edit] The First Tiberium War (Tiberian Dawn)
During the First Tiberium War the GDI fought Nod forces on a multitude of fronts. Eventually, Nod propaganda efforts painted the GDI as being responsible for atrocities such as the slaughter of the entire population of Bialystok, (spelled as Byelistok in the game where, ironically, one of the mission choices is to save the town's population from invading Nod troops) through a series of false news programs by Greg Burdette, which forced the GDI to pull back from many territories which were then quickly taken over by Nod supporters. This culminated in the UN becoming forced to discontinue its public funding of the GDI due to fear of public rebuke. Nod began assaulting GDI strongholds everywhere, believing that the organization had been severely weakened by these manipulative efforts.
As it turned out, the UN had faked their financial withdrawal in an attempt to outwit Nod's leader Kane, a brilliant and charismatic man. The plan was successful, and Nod forces were greatly surprised to find the bases they were attacking were heavily fortified. Most attacks were complete victories for the GDI. Two more years of fighting continued, however, until GDI operatives finally located Nod's main global headquarters, the so-called "Temple of Nod", just outside of Sarajevo. A three day battle began between the GDI and Nod's most elite troops. Kane's defenses were at last crippled, and the GDI's most advanced weapon - the orbital ion cannon - was activated. The Temple was destroyed, Kane was pronounced dead, and Nod was crippled effectively ending the First Tiberium War.
[edit] The Second Tiberium War (Tiberian Sun)
With the destruction of the Brotherhood's Sarajevo Temple a period of peace dawned, allowing time for the GDI to renew its efforts into researching the Tiberium substance and to study the Brotherhood of Nod's enigmatic and radically advanced Tiberium-based technology. However, GDI forces never recovered Kane's body which was considered by many to be the biggest oversight of the entire war. During these years tabloid headlines and rumors of the continued underground existence of the Brotherhood were commonplace, prompting the GDI to conduct investigations into these sightings before eventually sealing each case with few questions answered. The world remained largely at peace until September 2, 2030, when GDI bases around the world found themselves under heavy fire from Nod units. Aboard the Philadelphia, the GDI's top brass could make little sense of it; the Brotherhood as an organized and globalized militant force was supposed to have been almost eliminated and left divided into small and harmless splinter groups after Kane's death. And then, the unthinkable happened.
The GDI's communication equipment was hacked, and in a broadcast to the "Philadelphia", Kane revealed himself to be alive, thereby declaring his return to the global political and military scene. Alarmed with this development, general James Solomon charged commander Michael "Mack" McNeil with the job of countering the Nod assaults and taking the battle to them, thus initiating the Second Tiberium War.
The final battle this time took place in Cairo, with GDI forces striking once again at the heart of Nod, Kane's pyramid and rebuilt Temple. McNeil and Kane went one-on-one and in the end Kane was impaled with a steel beam. The GDI subsequently secured the mysterious Tacitus device, which could potentially provide the organization with the means to end the Tiberium infestation on the planet.
The alternate non-canonical Nod ending shows Kane's ICBM launchers eliminating the "Philadelphia", allowing him to launch a world-altering Tiberium missile unhindered and transform the earth and all life from carbon-based to Tiberium-based.
[edit] Aftermath (Tiberian Sun: Firestorm)
Shortly after Kane's second "death", it was revealed that the vaccine which The Forgotten leader Tratos had developed and had administered to his kin Umagon proved to be ineffective in curing, or even halting, Tiberium mutations within a human being, instead grossly accelerating mutations. Time began running out quickly as the Tiberium infestation increasingly continued to threaten the future and the very survival of humanity on Earth. The GDI thus began to focus the majority of its resources and efforts into unlocking the secrets of the Tacitus while defending themselves against the remainder of the Brotherhood. Tratos however was assassinated by forces led by the Nod player commander during the Nod campaign. This left the GDI with no alternative other than to attempt to capture the Brotherhood's artificial intelligence unit named CABAL, which was rumored to be able to decode all the information contained within the Tacitus device by means similar to those of Tratos. Anton Slavik, leading what was left of Nod's core, organized armed forces after the conclusion of the Second Tiberium War, was also working on reactivating CABAL in order to regain their logistical and tactical advantages, and more importantly to prevent the Brotherhood of Nod from fracturing into splinter groups again as it did after the conclusion of the First Tiberium War. When GDI forces recovered the final piece to the Tacitus however, CABAL suddenly turned on both the GDI and Nod in a move that would reveal itself to be part of an independent and premeditated plan of the AI itself. CABAL's increasing threat eventually led to an unholy alliance between GDI forces and the Brotherhood of Nod, with both armies destroying two fronts of CABAL's cyborg production and resource gathering facilities. Their missions succeeded, with the GDI and Nod mounting a final assault on the renegade artificial intelligence's system core.
Upon CABAL's termination, GDI researchers apparently managed to develop a "cure" for the Tiberium infestation on Earth based on the information they recovered from the Tacitus device. This appears in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars through sonic disrupters that can break down Tiberium at the molecular level. However, the device also delivered a warning of a future alien invasion.
[edit] The Third Tiberium War
Over the seventeen year period of peace that would follow after the Firestorm incidents and the Global Defense Initiative acquiring the mysterious Tacitus device, many things would begin to change. GDI gradually began to shut down what would become over 60% of their military bases and outposts worldwide, and additionally began to retire the bulk of their walker technology used primarily in the Second Tiberium War in favor of upgraded designs of more traditional weapon platforms. Officially, all of this was done in a bid to cut costs in response to the economic strains that came with human civilization becoming increasingly displaced and isolated into the few pockets of still habitable land across the world, as the result of the Tiberium substance's continued and relentless spreading over the Earth's surface. Many of the individual nations in the world collapsed, leaving only GDI to pick up the pieces and forcing the organization to become not only the military unification of its member states, but their administrative and political unification as well.
By the year of 2047, Tiberium contamination on Earth had progressed to such a degree that GDI was prompted into dividing the surface of the planet into three distinct types of geographical zones based on the levels of local infestation. 30% of the world's surface has been designated as "red zones", which had suffered the worst contamination and can no longer support human - or otherwise carbon-based - life. 50% of the regions in the world have been designated as "yellow zones", which are dangerously contaminated yet still contain most of the world's population. Decades of war and civil unrest have left these regions in a state of social collapse, and had continued to provide the Brotherhood of Nod with opportunity for concealment and large-scale recruitment over the years. The remaining 20% of the Earth's surface is unscarred by Tiberium outbreak and is relatively untouched by war. These "blue zones" are considered the last refuge and hope of the human civilized world, and have been placed under the direct protection of the Global Defense Initiative.
The apparent peace between GDI and Nod of the last seventeen years proves to have been the silence before the storm however, as the Brotherhood of Nod suddenly infiltrates Goddard Space Center and disables GDI's A-SAT defense systems responsible for defending GDI's space operations from hostile attacks. Nod then launches a nuclear missile at the Philadelphia at the precise moment GDI's senior leadership is in council onboard, virtually beheading the organization and throwing them into chaos as Nod launches a coordinated attack upon every major blue zone in the world. GDI manages to recover and re-organize itself however, and repels Nod from the blue zones after several weeks of fierce urban warfare, and launches a counterattack upon what is thought to be a Nod chemical weapons facility in Egypt. It is revealed that this facility was researching and developing a liquid Tiberium bomb of unprecedented power. GDI cripples Nod's nuclear capabilities in Cairo before proceeding to Sarajevo and firing the ion cannon on the Brotherhood's "Temple Prime" by order of acting GDI director Redmond Boyle, against the wishes of GDI General Granger. The Ion Cannon hits a liquid Tiberium deposit beneath the "Temple Prime", vaporizing it and inadvertently causing a large chain reaction of destruction across Eastern Europe which results in the death of millions within the region.
At the moment GDI believes it has prevailed a third time, alien invaders known only as the Scrin suddenly descend from the reaches of space and wreak havoc upon GDI and Nod alike. GDI discovers the invaders are constructing massive, monolithic towers for an unknown purpose and, after barely managing to withstand the initial planetary assault of the invaders, sets out to systematically destroy each of them. One tower survives the conflict however, and is as a result of its completion partially phased into another dimension and thus invulnerable to all forms of weaponry known to mankind. GDI has nonetheless won the day; Kane is seemingly dead, Nod is scattered, and GDI's destruction of the alien control node in Italy has neutralized all alien forces.
[edit] Official fact sheet
- Founded: In accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), the Global Defense Initiative was founded on the date of October 12th, 1995.
- Mandate: To enforce the United Nations Global Defense Act and uphold the ideals as outlined in the United Nations Charter.
- Base of Operations: During the First Tiberium War at the United Nations Military Command Center, location classified. Relocated to the orbital space station "Philadelphia" sometime after the conflict.
- Military Strength: Statistics regarding equipment and personnel are classified. Official military strength lies within parameters of the UNGDA, Article V, Section 3A, Paragraph 12.
- Economic Strength: Funded by the United Nations, various international governments, public organizations and private enterprises.
- Political Strength: Not applicable. Operates within parameters of the UNGDA and under the review of the United Nations Security Council.
- Affiliations: The United Nations (Governing body). G8 countries (Primary founding nations, originally referred to as the G7 countries during the First Tiberium War). Numerous other first world, former second world and newly industrialized countries (Participants and member states of the post-First Tiberium War era).
[edit] Leadership
Military
- During the First Tiberium War: Brigadier General (acting Lieutenant General) Mark Jamison Sheppard.
- During the Second Tiberium War: General James Solomon.
- During the Firestorm incident: Lieutenant General Paul Cortez.
- During the Third Tiberium War: General Jack Granger.
Bureaucratic
- During the First Tiberium War: United Nations Secretary of Defense Dr. Charles Olivetti.
- During the Third Tiberium War: Acting Director Redmond Boyle.
[edit] Naming
The organization's official designation is the United Nations' Global Defense Initiative. In practice this often becomes shortened by the omitting of "United Nations" from the introduction, leaving simply Global Defense Initiative. This title is commonly shortened itself by referring to the group by its initials - UNGDI or GDI. All four of these combinations refer to the same group and are officially recognized, however the abbreviation of GDI has traditionally been used the most frequently throughout the organization's history, both internally as well as externally.
[edit] Organization and branches
Numerous specialized divisions exist within the Global Defense Initiative, although the true extent of the organization's vast infrastructure is never entirely revealed throughout the games. Known divisions however are the GDI army, marines, navy, air force, science division, "InOps", "TacOps", "Theatre Ops" and the corps of engineers -- which apparently also was the group that had detonated the last of CABAL's bunkers shortly after the Firestorm events.
Throughout the First Tiberium War, an elite unit known as the "Dead-6" was active within the GDI Army -- a group formed out of the most competent commandos who were charged with special assignments. A passing reference is made in the manual of the original Tiberian Dawn to the GDI Elite Forces Unit, to which the Dead-6 Team was evidently subordinate, in addition to all other GDI commandos.
The "Daedalus Team", mentioned in Firestorm, was a group of scientists specialized in Tiberium-related research who were the first to decrypt the Tacitus device on GDI's behalf.
The "Bureau of Mutant Affairs" was a division established in the aftermath of the Second Tiberium War to specifically deal with issues related to The Forgotten, who had begun to exist in the world as the result of mutation caused to human beings by prolonged exposure to Tiberium radiation in heavily affected regions.
A division which is mentioned as well as prominently featured throughout Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars is "InOps", which is assumed to stand for "Intelligence Operations;" the centralized intelligence division of the Global Defense Initiative, which, given the nature of GDI's beginnings, is presumably one of the organization's eldest and core divisions. Another such branch mentioned in Tiberium Wars is the "TacOps" division, which deals with and presumably stands for "Tactical Operations".
Throughout the era ranging from the events portrayed in Tiberian Dawn until well after the events portrayed in Firestorm, GDI acted on behalf, on the orders and under the review of the United Nations Security Council. By the events portrayed in Tiberium Wars, however, GDI was forced to gradually absorb nearly all of its member states into itself in order to compensate for their collapse as traditional countries and nations, as the result of the critical levels of Tiberium infestation that began to manifest themselves in many regions of the world, regions which would come to be known as "yellow zones" and "red zones". GDI subsequently began to establish its own centralized civilian administration and bureaucracy in response to this emergency. By the year of 2047, GDI had effectively been rendered into the largest military and political superstate in history, tasked with overseeing and protecting the "blue zone" regions of the Earth -- the last refuges of the civilized world.
Within this new centralized administration, the body that serves as the leadership of the Global Defense Initiative consists of a number of directors with a clear line of Succession Protocols that determines who would rise in rank should an unexpected event remove several directors from their position. One of these positions is shown to include a Treasury Commissioner. The Tiberium Wars novel would reveal some details about GDI's government. Among these is that GDI's leadership consists of a Council of Directors. GDI's armed forces, officially designated as the GDI United Peacekeepers (GDIUP), are shown to be separate from the civilian bureaucracy.
[edit] GDI military doctrine
GDI's military is centered around the concept of hi-tech conventional warfare, and is designed to overpower and defeat adversaries through direct and open confrontations. GDI units can typically defeat their Nod and Scrin counterparts in a one on one battle; e.g. a Medium Tank destroying a Light Tank with relative ease. Their production rate is slower in-game compared to other factions, but in turn deploys stronger units to the battlefield. GDI's air power stems from the versatility provided by the advanced VTOL aircraft technology which the organization historically has fielded, as well as from tactics and designs derived from the air forces of its First World member states. Various forms of artillery and heavy armor, such as the Juggernaut and the Mammoth tank, provide additional firepower and devastating long-range siege abilities. A number of GDI's vehicle designs can optionally be outfitted with sonic weaponry and rail gun technologies, delivering heavy damage with absolute precision. After the events of the Second Tiberium War, new policies shifted the focus of GDI's military from primarily land-based force projection to next-generation strategic orbital armament, the quintessential examples of this being the enhanced "Ion Cannon" technology and "Sky Sentry" satellite networks featured in Tiberium Wars.
[edit] Technology level
GDI technological development has been brought about by the financial support of the G8 nations, the wealthiest economies of the world during the First Tiberium War. Developments in recent years include sonic weaponry and fast, specialized hovercraft technology. The organization has also pioneered the use of mechanized walkers, along with the development of the world's most advanced VTOL aircraft technology. GDI has countered Nod's increasing arsenal of lasers with rail guns, fielded by everything from Mammoth Tanks to elite infantry units such as Zone Troopers and Commandos. The pinnacle of GDI military technology, however, is the Ion Cannon, a space-based energy weapon capable of delivering immense destruction from geo-synchronous orbit. Due to cuts in budget and new GDI policies after the year 2036, GDI began to phase out the more expensive technologies, returning to more proven, cost-effective and conventional designs.
GDI lags behind Nod in other areas, however. While GDI has considerable space-based assets in place to support large numbers of hi-tech ground forces, and can afford larger, more expensive designs due to the support of the world's foremost economical powers, Nod has leapfrogged them in terms of optic camouflage and the military applications of laser technology. Additionally, Nod's disregard towards ethical guidelines has established them as the world leader in areas such as cybernetics and the applications of Tiberium-based technologies, two areas GDI is reluctant to commit itself to researching extensively.
GDI research is carried out in a variety of specialized institutions worldwide. Futuretech Labs is a prominent example, the research staff was located in New Eden, until the initial Scrin invasion forced an evacuation.
[edit] Notes
- ^ During the events of Firestorm GDI’s orbital command station "Philadelphia" could not be reached due to severe ion storms, which caused the Kodiak to crash and be destroyed on impact. As a result, a GDI base using the call sign "Southern Cross", which was led by General Cortez, temporarily assumed control of all terrestrial GDI operations. Communications with the Philiadelphia were re-established when the ion storm ended.
[edit] References
- ^ (1995) Command & Conquer For Windows 95, english manual. Virgin Interactive Entertainment.
- ^ Allied newscaster: Reacting to this latest assault, Allied diplomats led the United Nations in a 281 to 7 vote. That, in approving a unique military funding initiative aimed at increasing global Allied support. This proposal calls for the formation of a Global Defense agency, to be temporarily established in an as yet unnamed European capital. (Command & Conquer: Red Alert) Westwood Studios, 1996
- ^ Command & Conquer: Red Alert; Allies Campaign, 5th mission briefing cutscene, 00:26.
[edit] Further reading
The Command & Conquer franchise | |
|---|---|
| Video games | Tiberian series: Command & Conquer · Tiberian Sun · Renegade · Tiberium Wars · Kane's Wrath Red Alert series: Red Alert · Red Alert 2 · Yuri's Revenge Generals series: Generals · Zero Hour Other: Tiberium |
| Factions | Tiberian series: Brotherhood of Nod · Global Defense Initiative · Scrin |
| Characters | Tiberian series: GDI characters · Nod characters · Kane Red Alert series: Allied characters · Soviet characters · Yuri |
| Modifications | All Stars · Cold War Crisis · Mental Omega · ShockWave |
| Miscellaneous | List of media · Mammoth Tank · Misc characters · Misc factions · The First Decade · Tiberium · Tiberium Wars (novel) |
nl:Global Defense Initiative sv:Global Defense Initiative fi:Global Defense Initiative ko:지구 방위 기구
