Global Defense Initiative

The United Nations' Global Defense Initiative (or UNGDI for short) is a fictional militarized branch of the United Nations which is featured prominently in the 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, goldish or bluish background.

Storyline overview

Origins

The Global Defense Initiative was originally a covert, multinational special forces group operating under the designation of "Special Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9".cite book|title = Command & Conquer For Windows 95, english manual|publisher = Virgin Interactive Entertainment| date = 1995] The concept of the organization had first been proposed within the United Nations Security Council by representatives of Allied countries amidst the 20th century's , [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] [; Allies Campaign, 5th mission briefing cutscene, 00:26.] and was in the aftermath of that conflict jointly established 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 render it able to silently hamstring anything from local ethnic unrest to regionalized armed conflicts across the globe, and was given as its prime objective the ensuring no fledgling confrontations would ever escalate into a continental or worldwide emergency again. As "S.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 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 Brotherhood of Nod society, prompted the Security Council to begin to greatly expand and revise the mandate and purpose of "S.O.G.E.: B.O.9". The organization was restructured and was brought out of the shadows, 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 12^th, 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."

Command and Conquer

During the First Tiberium War 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 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, [ Gen. Sheppard: Commander, you've been hustled. The UN wasn't against me. Not all of them at least. But we had to play that little game to lull Kane into a false sense of security. ("Command & Conquer") Westwood Studios, 1995 ] 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.

Command & Conquer: 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 .

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. GDI forces subsequently secured the mysterious Tacitus device, which was believed to hold the secret to end the Tiberium infestation on the planet.

Firestorm

Shortly after Kane's second "death", it was revealed that the vaccine which The Forgotten leader Tratos had developed and had administered to Umagon proved to be ineffective in curing, or even halting, Tiberium mutations within a human being, instead grossly accelerating mutations, and the Tiberium infestation continued to threaten humanity on Earth. GDI thus began to focus the majority of its resources and efforts into unlocking the secrets of the Tacitus; however, Tratos was assassinated by forces led by the Nod player commander during the Nod campaign, leaving GDI unable to decode the device. This left GDI with no alternative other than to attempt to capture the CABAL, Nod's AI counterpart to EVA. CABAL was rumored to be able to decode all the information contained within the Tacitus device by means similar to those of Tratos. With CABAL's aid GDI located a missing Tacitus piece and returned it to CABAL's core, but when the piece was added to the primary Tacitus mainframe CABAL abruptly seized the Tacitus and turned on both the GDI and Nod. CABAL's increasing threat eventually led to an unholy alliance between GDI forces and the Brotherhood of Nod, resulting in CABAL's loss of several cyborg production and resource gathering facilities. Ultimately, the AI was disabled and GDI scientists recovered the Tacitus intact.

Upon CABAL's termination, GDI researchers managed to develop a countermeasure for the Tiberium infestation on Earth based on the information they recovered from the Tacitus device: sonic disrupters developed by GDI can break down Tiberium at the molecular level. However, the device also delivered a warning of a future alien invasion.

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Seventeen year period of peace followed the , leading GDI to disband over 60% of their military bases and outposts worldwide and the bulk of their walker technology units used primarily in the . This was done in a bid to cut costs in response to the economic strains that came with human civilization 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 GDI to pick up the pieces and force 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 divided the surface of the planet into three distinct 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. Fifty percent 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 twenty percent 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.

It was against this backdrop that the Brotherhood of Nod abruptly reappeared, infiltrating the Goddard Space Center and disabling GDI's A-SAT defense system, leaving "Philadelphia" open for a nuclear missile strike. The abrupt loss of "Philadelphia" and GDI's senior leadership virtually beheads the organization, leaving Nod to capitalize on the ensuing chaos. GDI manages to recover and re-organize itself however, and manage to repel Nod forces from the blue zones after several weeks of fierce urban warfare. Ultimately, GDI locates the Brotherhood's "Temple Prime", and on Orders of acting GDI director Redmond Boyle, an Ion Cannon strike is called in against the Temple. The strike obliterates the temple, but the Ion Cannon also hits a Liquid Tiberium Bomb which Kane had built beneath the "Temple Prime", 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. Following the successful assault on a tower in Rome, GDI forces across the globe are galvanized into action, and many of the towers are destroyed. 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; despite this, GDI has 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.

Manual 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. Known as "Special Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9" prior to 1990.

*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 at the United Nations Military Command Center, location classified. Relocated to the orbital space station "GDSS (Global Defence Space Station) Philadelphia" sometime after the conflict.ref|local

*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).cite book|title = Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars, english manual|publisher = Electronic Arts| date = 2007]

Organization

Throughout the era ranging from the events portrayed in "Tiberian Dawn" until well after the events portrayed in "", GDI acted on behalf, on the orders and under the review of the United Nations Security Council.cite web | url=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/commandconquer3/news.html?page=1&sid=6155386&tag=result;title;0 | title=Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars Designer Diary #1 - The Story Behind the GDI Faction | accessdate=10 May | accessyear=2008 | publisher=Gamespot Staff, Electronic Arts | date=2006-08-07] 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 which determine who are to rise in rank should an unexpected event remove several directors from their position. [ Gen. Granger: We also have a new acting Director, Redmond Boyle. He's the former GDI Treasury Commissioner. I know what you're thinking -- but that's our succession protocol. Everybody above Boyle in the chain of command went down with the Philadelphia. ("Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars") Electronic Arts, 2007 ] The 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.

Leadership

Military
* Highest ranking officer during the First Tiberium War: Brigadier General (acting Lieutenant General) Mark Jamison Sheppard.

* Highest ranking officer during the : General James Solomon.:During the : Lieutenant General Paul Cortez.; GDI Campaign, 1st mission briefing cutscene, 02:49.]

* Founder of the Steel Talons battalion: General Joshua "Mitch" Mitchell.cite web | url=http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/commandconquer3kaneswrath/news.html?page=1&sid=6183017&tag=result;title;6 | title=Command & Conquer 3: Kane's Wrath - The GDI Subfactions | accessdate=16 April | accessyear=2008 | publisher=GameSpot staff, Electronic Arts | date=2007-11-16]

* Highest ranking officer during the : General Jack Granger.

* Commanding officer of the ZOCOM unit: General C. Elena Renteria.

Bureaucratic
* During the First Tiberium War: United Nations Secretary of Defense Dr. Charles Olivetti. [ Newscaster: Quoting from a prepared statement issued earlier today, UN Secretary of Defense Dr. Charles Olivetti confirmed that heavy casualties were sustained by Nod forces.("Command & Conquer") Westwood Studios, 1995 ]

* Prior to the attack on the "Philadelphia" in 2047: Director Kingsburg. [ Cassandra Blair: According to director Kingsburg, one of the key talking points for this year's summit is shifting resource allocation from defense, to ecology. ("Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars") Electronic Arts, 1995 ]

* During the Third Tiberium War: Acting Director Redmond Boyle.

Prominent branches

Numerous specialized branches and military divisions are shown to exist within the Global Defense Initiative, although the true extent of the organization's vast and globalized infrastructure is never entirely revealed throughout the games. Known branches however are the GDI Army, Marines, Navy, Air Force, Science Division, FutureTech Labs, "InOps", "TacOps", "Theatre Ops", the Steel Talons division, the ZOCOM unit and the Corps of Engineers -- which apparently also was the group that had detonated the last of CABAL's bunkers shortly after the ' events. ["The Ghost in the Machine"' ("Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars, GDI Intel Database") Electronic Arts, 2007]

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" game to the GDI Elite Forces Unit, to which the Dead-6 Team was subordinate in addition to all other GDI commandos.

The "Daedalus Team", mentioned in "Firestorm", was a group of top scientists specialized in Tiberium-related research who were the first to decrypt the Tacitus device on GDI's behalf.; GDI Campaign, campaign ending cutscene, 01:10.]

The "Bureau of Mutant Affairs" was a division established in the aftermath of the 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 "" is "InOps", the centralized intelligence division of the Global Defense Initiative; one of the organization's eldest and core divisions. Another such branch mentioned in "Tiberium Wars" is the "TacOps" division, which deals with and stands for "Tactical Operations".

Steel Talons

The Steel Talons were an experimental battalion formed in the wake of the . Founded by General Joshua "Mitch" Mitchell, the battalion specialized in unconventional battlefield operations, and was deemed an "experimental" one because it became a test bed for the latest and most promising military technologies developed by GDI's FutureTech Labs. It was also designated as such because of Mitchell's demand that some of the peace dividend, realized with the end of the Second Tiberium War, be directed toward maintaining the technological edge GDI had managed to achieve over Nod on the military level. Mitchell argued that as long as Tiberium contamination remained present within large regions of the Earth, significant amounts of the population would remain dispirited and deprived, and would provide ready recruits for any successor to the then broken Brotherhood of Nod.

The Steel Talons battalion deployed the most advanced versions of the "Titan" and "Wolverine" walker technology which GDI ever fielded, played a significant role in rendering the then still experimental rail gun technology more mainstream weaponry to the organization, and innovated several deployment strategies, equipment customizations and combat tactics which would become standard procedure for GDI forces in the era portrayed in "Tiberium Wars", and beyond. [ [http://www.commandandconquer.com/intel/default.aspx?id=82 EA Command & Conquer 3 Tiberium Wars - News] ] Even amongst the Steel Talons' ranks however, the shift in GDI's budget from military expenditure towards space-based assets and Tiberium abatement research -initiated by the GDI Council after the second war- became quite evident in various ways. The most notable example was the discontinuation of the Mammoth Mk II walker, and its replacement by the more conventional and treaded Mammoth Mk III. [GDI Archives; Discontinuation of the Mammoth Mk II Walker: It was a sad day for many today as the last Mammoth Mark II Walker to enter active combat duty clanked its way out of GDI's San Pedro War Factory and into history. With its twin Rail Guns, Battlefield dominance, and unusual boxy profile, the Mk. II became an iconic symbol of freedom during the Second Tiberium War. Its discontinuation has been greeted by many with anger, notably Captain Nick "Havoc" Parker, retired war hero, popular conservative pundit, and noted proponent of the "Kane lives" theory. ("Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars", GDI Intel Database) Electronic Arts, 2007]

Zone Operations Command (ZOCOM)

With the Second Tiberium War over, but with Tiberium also beginning to render truly vast portions of the Earth's surface completely inhospitable to carbon-based life, the GDI Council tasked the military to initiate emergency Tiberium abatement efforts, with the goal of reducing and ultimately eliminating Tiberium contamination from the face of the planet. In response, the ZOCOM or "Zone Operations Command" unit was established -- an elite GDI task force equipped to tackle the planet-wide Tiberium infestation on large scales and begin with the reclaiming of the Earth's "Red Zones" for humanity. ZOCOM's directive was to infiltrate areas containing extreme levels of Tiberium infestation and to commence with instant reclamation operations on-site. In addition to this, the unit had to be capable of independently defending these vital efforts against any terrorist and mutant attacks.

Due to the nature of the assignment -and the dangers of being exposed to Tiberium for prolonged periods of time- ZOCOM was comprised out of some of the most capable, battle-hardened veterans in all of the GDI, who were re-trained and equipped specifically for these Tiberium abatement operations. Command of ZOCOM was given to C. Elena Renteria, one of the first women to rise to the rank of general in the GDI. Though Mexican by birth, she grew up in the Tiberium wastes of Africa, following her scientist parents around.

ZOCOM forces are clad in Tiberium-resistant battle armor, use experimental sonic equipment that is known to pack a considerably more powerful punch than conventional weaponry, and are highly specialized in area-of-effect tactics. [cite web | url=http://www.commandandconquer.com/intel/default.aspx?id=107#NewsMain | title=Kane's Wrath Zocom Zone Raider Spotlight | accessdate=26 February | accessyear=2008 | publisher=Electronic Arts]

Military doctrines

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 Predator Tank destroying a Scorpion 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 with the ability to crush lesser tanks with ease, such as the Juggernaut and the Mammoth tank, provide additional firepower and devastating long-range siege abilities which are able to take out most tanks and buildings in a few shots. 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 , new policies shifted the focus of GDI's military doctrine from superior 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 ""), as well as emergency Tiberium abatement operations (characterized by the rapid development of sonic-based weaponry and equipment, and the establishment of the elite ZOCOM unit). This cutback in proven and 'down-to-earth' weaponry had in years past met with significant concern at the organisation's military prowess, yet produced some welcomed and unexpected dividends in the Third Tiberium War, specifically against the alien invaders of the Scrin.

Technological 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 most advanced VTOL aircraft technology to date. 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 certain areas however. While GDI has considerable space-based assets in place to support large numbers of specialized, highly trained and hi-tech equipped ground forces, and can afford larger, more expensive designs due to the continued support of the world's foremost economical powers, Nod has leapfrogged them in terms of optic camouflage and the military applications of advanced laser technology. Additionally, Nod's disregard towards ethical guidelines has established them as the world leader in fields such as eugenics, cybernetics and the applications of Tiberium-based technologies and weaponry, areas GDI is reluctant to commit itself into researching extensively, if at all.

GDI's 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.

Notes

# During the events of "" "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. [; GDI Campaign, 1st mission briefing cutscene, 02:27.] 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.

References

Further reading

* [http://planetcnc.gamespy.com/View.php?view=Encyclopedia.Detail&id=7#neworg/ A comprehensive resource outlining the storyline behind the "Global Defense Initiative"]