The Decline of Eurasia

In retrospect, the strength of the EF was illusory: much of the power of the Eurasian Federation was really the power of the Eurasia-based transnats. The Eurasian hegemony would last only as long as the interests of government and business coincided. As the centre of gravity of human civilisation moved into orbit the balance of power shifted ever more towards the corporations. The EF seemed certain to soon follow the other great nations into history. Perhaps if the Federation had maintained an interest in the affairs of Sol System, history would have been very different. As it was, Eurasia consented fully to its own decline and its fall in the aftermath of the War with Mars.

In 2169 the Eurasian Federation, through the Vienna Accords, handed ownership of all territory beyond the Earth to the UN. Today it seems almost unbelievable that the Federation would so willingly make such a move However, the control of space by the megacorps was at the time a fait accompli, but the UN and the Transnats were not yet synonymous. President Glushko's negotiation of the Accords must be viewed as a brave attempt to salvage something of the future. By the time of the signing ceremony at the ancient UN Building in New York it was clear that the attempt would fail. As he signed the Accords, the President's face, recorded by a thousand cameras, was that of a man defeated, knowing himself responsible for the passing of a great empire.

The Vienna Accords may have presaged the decline of the EF as the last of the great nations, but that decline was stretched over decades. As late at the start of the War of Martian Independence the Federation was still a power to be reckoned with. Indeed, today's Praesidium is in many ways a continuation of Eurasia. Maybe, then, there was wisdom in Glushko's strategy after all: for by turning over space to the UN (and thus to the Transnats) the Federation washed its hands of the tyranny on Mars. In the War it became as much a victim of the Transnationals as the Martians themselves.

EF: 1 2 | 3 4 | 5 6 | Now

The future of Ad Astra

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