Global Defense Initiative

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

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". 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 Second Great War, 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 12th 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 in Poland 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, 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 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 Tiberium crystal. 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 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
A seventeen year period of peace followed the Firestorm incidents, leading GDI to disband over 60% of its military bases and outposts worldwide along with the bulk of its walker technology-based units used primarily in the Second Tiberium War. This was done in a bid to cut costs in response to the economic strains that came with human civilization's increasing displacement and isolation into the few pockets of still habitable land across the world, as the result of the Tiberium substance's continued and relentless spread over the Earth's surface. Many of the world's independent nations collapsed, leaving GDI to pick up the pieces and forcing the organization to become not only the military unification of its member states, but their administrative and political unification as well.



By the year 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 was designated as "red zones", which had suffered the worst contamination and could no longer support human - or otherwise carbon-based - life. Fifty percent of the regions in the world were designated as "yellow zones", which were dangerously contaminated yet still contained most of the world's population. Decades of war and civil unrest left these regions in a state of social collapse and had continued to provide the Brotherhood of Nod with opportunities for concealment and large-scale recruitment over the years. The remaining twenty percent of the Earth's surface, unscarred by Tiberium outbreak and relatively untouched by war, were designated "blue zones". These regions were considered the last refuge and hope of the civilized world, and were 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 beheaded the organization, leaving Nod to capitalize on the ensuing chaos. However, GDI managed to recover and re-organize itself, repelling Nod's forces from the blue zones after several weeks of fierce urban warfare. Ultimately, GDI located the Brotherhood's "Temple Prime", and on the orders of acting GDI director Redmond Boyle, an orbital Ion Cannon was fired upon the Temple. The strike obliterated the temple but also hit a Liquid Tiberium Bomb, hidden by Kane beneath the Temple, inadvertently causing a large chain reaction of destruction across Eastern Europe, resulting in the death of millions in the region.

GDI believed that it had prevailed a third time, but shortly after the destruction of "Temple Prime" in Sarajevo, alien invaders known only as the Scrin, attracted by the detonation of the Liquid Tiberium Bomb, descended from the reaches of space and wreaked havoc upon GDI and Nod alike. GDI discovers that the invaders were constructing massive, monolithic towers for an unknown purpose and, after barely managing to withstand the initial planetary assault of the invaders, set out to systematically destroy each of them. Following the successful assault on a tower in Rome, GDI forces across the globe were galvanized into action and many of the towers were destroyed. However, one tower survived the conflict due to Nod's intervention, allowing the Scrin to complete the tower and partially phase it into another dimension, rendering it invulnerable to all forms of weaponry known to mankind. Despite this, GDI achieved victory: Kane was seemingly killed, Nod scattered, and GDI's destruction of a Scrin control node in Italy neutralized all alien forces.

Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
By 2062, global Tiberium contamination reached critical levels; GDI's contemporary abatement technology has become ineffective. With the threat to the Earth and mankind too great, even for Kane, to ignore. Meeting with GDI leaders in Manchester, UK on 27 July, Kane proposed a cooperative venture which was controversial for both sides. Using the Tacitus as leverage, Kane revealed that he had developed a new system, dubbed the Tiberium Control Network, to control and harness Tiberium, however only GDI had the resources necessary to construct it. The situation was too dire for GDI to decline, and GDI and Nod formed an uneasy alliance.

The Tiberium Control Network Conflict broke out in 2062 between Nod Separatists and GDI. By 2073 GDI defeated the separatists with their new weapons, the Crawlers.

After 15 years of restoration work the Tiberium Control Network was a success, and the crisis averted. However Nod Separatists attempted to kill Kane as GDI escorted him to the TCN opening ceremony, sparking the Fourth Tiberium War between the Separatists and the GDI-Nod alliance. However the alliance itself begins to crack as GDI extremists led by Colonel Louise James began to get suspicious and investigated Kane's and Nod's actions with the TCN. This attracted Kane's attention and he attempted to have her eliminated but James and her forces escaped. The GDI government however believed that James was going rogue to which James responded by declaring martial law on New Adana, effectively plunging GDI into a civil war. After a battle in the government district James and her men were arrested by GDI's chief commander General Riggs.

James and her forces however managed to escape from prison and sparked a battle with the now-reunited Brotherhood of Nod at the Scrin Tower, effectively ending the alliance. GDI however was unable to stop Nod from linking the TCN to the tower, which opened a portal inside the tower. Kane and Nod disappeared after entering the tower and GDI is left as the sole planetary superpower on Earth. Tiberium is now no longer a global problem.

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 12, 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 First Tiberium War 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.


 * 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).

Organization
Throughout the era ranging from the events portrayed in Command & Conquer until well after the events portrayed in Firestorm, GDI acted on behalf, on the orders and under the review of the United Nations Security Council. 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. The Tiberium Wars novel 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 Mark Jamison Sheppard.


 * Highest ranking officer during the Second Tiberium War: General James Solomon.
 * During the Firestorm incident: Brigadier General Paul Cortez.


 * Founder of the Steel Talons battalion: General Joshua "Mitch" Mitchell.


 * Highest ranking officer during the Third Tiberium War: General Jack Granger.


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


 * Highest ranking officer during the the Fourth Tiberium War: General Wesley Riggs.

Bureaucratic
 * During the First Tiberium War: United Nations Secretary of Defense Dr. Charles Olivetti.


 * Prior to the attack on the Philadelphia in 2047: Director Lia Kinsburg.


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


 * During the Fourth Tiberium War: General Secretary Evelyn Rios and the GDI Council of Directors.

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 Firestorm events.

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 and mercenaries who were charged with special assignments. A passing reference is made in the manual of the original Command & Conquer 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.

The "Bureau of Mutant Affairs" was a division established in the aftermath of the Second Tiberium War 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 Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars 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 Second Tiberium War. 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 is worth noting that in Red Alert 3 the Allied technology is mostly produced by FutureTech Corporation.) It was also designated as such because of Mitchell's demand that some of the peace dividend, realised 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 railgun 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. 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.

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.

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 railgun technologies, delivering heavy damage with absolute precision.

After the events of the Second Tiberium War, 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 Tiberium Wars), 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 organization'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 railguns, 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.