Global Defense Initiative

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The official UNGDI emblem used during the First Tiberium War

The UNGDI, or fully the United Nations Global Defense Initiative, is a fictional militarized branch of the United Nations which is prominently featured in the real-time strategy video games of Command & Conquer, Command & Conquer 2: Tiberian Sun and its expansion pack Firestorm, the first-person shooter Command & Conquer: Renegade and the upcoming title of Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars. Their official emblem is a golden motif of a diving bird of prey, set against a silvery background.

[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 the combinations refer to this same group and are officially recognized, however the term of GDI has traditionally been used the most frequently throughout the organization's history, both internally as well as externally.

[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.

Chief of Staff: During the First Tiberium War; United States Brigadier General Mark Jamison Shepherd, Chief of Staff, United Nations Military Command. Succeeded by Colonel James Solomon in 2026.

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 war.^[1]

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 enterprise.

Political Strength: Not applicable. Operates within parameters of the UNGDA and under the review of the United Nations Security Council.

Affiliations: The United Nations. G8 countries (referred to as the G7 countries during the First Tiberium War).

[edit] History

[edit] Origins

The Global Defense Initiative, or GDI, was originally a covert and a multinational special forces group operating under the designation of Operations Group Echo: Black Ops 9. The organization was formed by the United Nations Security Council in the aftermath of the World Wars, and was designed to be a specialized peace enforcing unit with a mandate to operate worldwide. The unit was equipped with both the political and military means to deal with anything from local ethnic unrest to regionalized armed conflicts across the world, and had as its primary directive the ensuring that no fledgling regional dispute or conflict 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 global spread of a mysterious and toxic extraterrestrial substance known as Tiberium, as well as the ever increasing influence of the globalized Brotherhood of Nod society, prompted the Security Council to begin to greatly expand and revise the mandate as well as the purpose of 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 directly as well as effectively. In accordance with the United Nations Global Defense Act (UNGDA), the UNGDI or fully the United Nations Global Defense Initiative was founded at the date of October 12th, 1995.

The UN 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 Shepherd.

[edit] The First Tiberium War (Tiberian Dawn)

Kane embraces the light from GDI's Ion Cannon strike. Kane's body was never recovered, which is widely considered to be the biggest oversight of the entire war.

During the First Tiberium War GDI fought Nod forces on a multitude of fronts. Eventually, Nod propaganda efforts painted 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 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 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 sociopath. 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 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 GDI and Nod's most elite troops. Kane's defenses were at last crippled, and 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)

GDI's headquarters were eventually relocated to the orbital space station "Philadelphia"

With the destruction of the Brotherhood's Sarajevo Temple a period of peace dawned, allowing time for 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 GDI to conduct investigations into these sightings before eventually sealing each case with little questions answered. The world remained at peace until September 2, 2030, when GDI bases around the world found themselves under heavy fire from Nod units. Aboard the "Philadelphia", 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.

GDI its 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. GDI secured the Tacitus, a data orb that is believed to contain vast knowledge on the secrets, the possibilities and above all on the nature of Tiberium, and which could potentially provide GDI with the means to end the Tiberium infestation on the planet.

The alternate ending shows Kane's ICBM launchers eliminating the "Philadelphia", allowing him to launch a world-altering Tiberium missile unhindered and transforming the entire planet into a sea of Tiberium, destroying all native life and all of human civilization.

[edit] The Aftermath (Tiberian Sun: Firestorm)

Shortly after Kane's "death," it was revealed that the vaccine which "The Forgotten" leader Tratos had developed and administered to Umagon proved to be ineffective in curing, or even halting, Tiberium mutations within a human being. Time was running out quickly as the Tiberium infestation increasingly continued to threaten the future and very survivial of humanity on Earth. GDI thus began to focus the majority of its resources and efforts into unlocking the secrets of the Tacitus, a mysterious object considered to hold all the recorded knowledge on the Tiberium substance, 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 GDI with no other alternative than attempting 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. Slavik and that what was left Nod's armed forces after the conclusion of the Second Tiberium War were instead working on obtaining an EVA unit from GDI one way or another in order to regain their logistical and tactical advantages and to begin to regroup themselves. As GDI recovered one of the final pieces to the Tacitus however, CABAL suddenly turned on GDI 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 and Nod, with both armies destroying two fronts of CABAL's cyborg production facilities. Their missions succeeded, with GDI and Nod mounting a final assault on the renegade articial intelligence.

Upon CABAL's termination, GDI apparently managed to develop a 'cure' for the Tiberium infestation on Earth based on the information they recovered from the Tacitus device, but whether or not they succeeded is yet to be determined in the upcoming Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars.

[edit] Notes

1. ↑  During the events of Firestorm GDI’s orbital command station "Philadelphia" could not be reached due to severe electromagnetic disturbances in the upper atmosphere. As a result, a GDI base using the call sign "Southern Cross" temporarily assumed control of all terrestrial GDI operations.

[edit] See also

• Characters of the Global Defense Initiative
• Global Defence Initiative storyline
• Technology of the Global Defense Initiative
• Command & Conquer series
• Command & Conquer: The First Decade

[edit] Further reading

• A comprehensive resource outlining the storyline behind the Global Defense Initiative