The World of 2185

	Did someone mention eariler, the reason that the NAC & Japan
have such 
close relations is because if a link between the monarchies by marriage?

 Bizarre, but really interesting.  Would this have to be a marriage of
the 
monarchs themselves, or of close relations (kids, siblings, etc)?  If we

are going to go monarchs, it'd have to be an Anglian Queen marrying a 
Japanese Emperor.  I can't see Nihon being ruled at anytime in the
future 
by an Empress.
	Well, maybe.
	How about a Maggie Thatcher-type marrying an Akihito-type? 
She's a force 
of nature, he's a nice guy.  Just a thought.

	As for sources of terrorism/revolution circa 2185, look at each
bloc's 
conquered/assimilated territories:
	NAC: Central & South America
	FSE: ? Dunno.
	ESU: India, Korea, Nepal, Tibet, Islamic areas
	NSL: Eastern Europe, Balkans,
	PAU: northern Islamic areas
	IF: non-Islamic african areas
	IC: Indochina, various island states
	OU: ? Dunno

	I would also assume that everybody has some splinter groups at
home, too. 
 Some more than others.  i could see a whole lot of unpleasantness going
on 
in both Central/South America and India.  Divergent cultures, conquered
by 
force, racial differences, etc.  The NAC & ESU would have to sit on them

pretty hard, I'd bet.

	I also have to agree with an earlier observation:  These
super-states are 
really giant, closely-knit power blocs.  Their wars are unlikely to
change 
the power balance much.  There has been a lot of conquering in the
recent 
past, and everybody wants some measure of stability.  After a few big 
campaigns, the 3rd Solar War seemed to degenerate to the level of a
'Phony 
War' with just a few strikes here & there, with a bunch of commerce
raiding 
to liven things up.  Both were probably gearing up for the 'Big Push',
but 
the KV seemed to have beaten them to the punch.

Noah