RE: scenario ideas [Forwarded with concern] for discussion (but not on Abortion...)

G'day,
 
> 2) Rules that might make the security of the females paramount but
> minimally artificially limit the players' options.  (In FT all of a
> sudden the much maligned NB has a role...)

I'd see this more as SG territory. You could simply add extra confidence
modifiers for taking losses amongst the captives and making the captives
less than cooperative would just make it that much more interesting.

> 3) History wise, how might this affect certain debated aspects of the
> time line (ESU and IC swallowing India (all of South Asia)  
> and SE Asia) to make these events more likely to have occurred?

I'd be tempted to skip tat potential hot potato altogether and place it
on a
divided colony world. Resources, radiation belts, ozone holes, NRE-like
male
only starter colonies etc could all explain needing to draw brides from
elsewhere.

> 4) History wise again, How might this process lead to 
> identification as ESU/IC citizens instead of previous assorted
national
and 
> ethnic labels? 

Its only a personal opinion, but I'd say these mega nations are so big
that
ethnic identity wouldn't get subsumed by aligning to the state. In
addition
that leaves it open for independence wars and fragmentation *which
normally
follows such large scale imperial expansions eventually).

> Also there have been articles about Asians marrying across certain
> national lines and the resulting social chaos as the bureaucracy has
> problems dealing with such issues as requiring brides to be to take
> courses in the culture of the husband before allowing emigration.

You're probably less likely to see this problem after the expansions of
the
megastates as they can just mix around what they've got rather than
needing
to go cross border, in fact I think they'd be suspicious of going cross
border. Though there would be cultural resistance I could also see a
shift
in attitudes to the sex of children as colony worlds open up that
actively
encourage the rapid increase in population rate. Though economics can be
a
hard one to counteract I guess it comes down to how much the governments
of
the GZGverse are willing to subsidise population growth and thus counter
economic pressures adding to cultural traditions and beliefs. Another
reason
I'd place it on a poorer colony world, cut off from Earth trade due to
Kra'Vak activities they're be more likely to be feeling the economic
pinch,
more likely to slide into cultural belief structures and thus run short
on
women (in addition to all the other reasons above). At least as far as
my
limited sociology/economics knowledge would suggest ;)

Cheers

Beth