United Earth Government

The United Earth Government (UEG) is a human supranational governing entity which acted as the government of the vast majority of human worlds up until the Human-Covenant War, which saw its effective authority restricted to SolCore. The overall polity governed by the UEG is still known as the United Nations in some contexts, though the historical name fell out of general usage after the UEG gained full autonomy from Earth's national governments in the 23rd century; it most prominently persists in the name of the United Nations Space Command, the UEG's military and spacefaring arm. The UEG was also informally known as SolCore for a time around the 24th century, though the name now generally refers to the astrographic region exclusively rather than the UEG's sphere of influence overall.

History
The UEG is a direct successor to the United Nations, being formed as a reorganization of the international body at the close of the Interplanetary War in 2170 to facilitate more effective response to crises on Earth and its off-world colonies, as well as to provide a more effective civilian authority to oversee the newly-formed United Nations Space Command. Though the UN system was entirely overhauled, not all of the UN's institutions were dismantled, and survived into the UEG era albeit usually with significant reforms.

Throughout the next two centuries, the UEG was forced to tackle an ongoing ecological crisis and overpopulation on Earth, exacerbated by devastation caused by the Rainforest Wars; this prompted the increased development of the interplanetary colonies as well various breakthroughs in terraforming and climate engineering. The 23rd century saw the UEG's prominence growing across the Sol system as both a facilitator of inter-colonial dialogue, and regulating various corporate entities operating in the expanding frontier of the Outer System. By the second half of the 23rd century, national governments had lost what remained of their relevance as administrative states, with localized cultural identities being increasingly diffused into the regional and global levels. Even as it faced pushback from various actors, universalist Pan-Humanism gradually became the norm.

Following the development of the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine, the UEG spearheaded Mankind's expansion beyond the Sol system throughout the 24th and 25th centuries; this saw the creation of the Colonial Administration Authority as a secondary entity to govern the extrasolar colonies.

The first major conflicts outside the Sol system occurred around the late 24th century with the Inner Colony Wars, an irregular set of hostilities in seven systems of the burgeoning Inner Colonies; the conclusion of the wars in the 2390s saw the UEG consolidating its power over the colonies through the CAA, followed by several decades of expansion and relative peace - a period of history later known as the Pax Humana. However, this was not to last. The colonies' lackluster representation in the UEG, along with various other issues such as tariffs, corporate overreach and a draconian court system led to widespread dissent among many colonists, particularly in the Outer Colonies, and by the 2490s, dozens of rebellions had sprung up across the colonies, giving rise to the series of conflicts known collectively as the Insurrection.

The onset of the Human-Covenant War saw a radical change in human governance; upon witnessing the severity of the Covenant threat, the civilian government near-unanimously agreed to cede unprecedented emergency powers to the UNSC. This effectively limited the UEG's reach to Sol, with the UNSC acting as an emergency military government throughout the rest of the colonial sphere.

In the postbellum years, the UNSC made several attempts to cede its power back to the UEG, with limited success. In the vastly changed political landscape of the post-war era, the UEG was deemed ineffectual and anachronistic, unable to adequately answer to the pressing challenges of that era such as rebuilding humanity's economic base and military power, relocating the millions of refugees displaced by the war, or establishing effective diplomatic bridges to sympathetic post-Covenant polities. These challenges eventually prompted the creation of the Phoenix Initiative, an interim treaty organization formed between the UNSC, the colonies, and various corporations and consortia to oversee the reconstruction process. Although the UEG was able to exert some level of influence through the Phoenix Initiative, it would not regain its pre-war authority over the extrasolar territories. This has had various effects, among them a rising resurgence of patriotic and nationalist sentiments among Earth's population as they now long for the "glory days" of UEG power.

Structure
The UEG maintains a separate head of state, the President, and head of government, the Secretary-General. Executive power is technically divided between the President and Secretary-General, though the latter holds more power in most affairs. The President acts as the UEG's most visible public face, and historically served as the commander-in-chief of the UNSC Armed Forces until that power was relinquished to the UNSC Security Council in 2527. The President also technically acts as a check on the power of the Secretary-General and the Secretariat, though these powers have been exercised only a handful of times in the UEG's history.

Artificial intelligences are embedded in the UEG's governmental apparatus and replace many of the steps of a traditional bureaucratic apparatus. However, actual decision-making is done by humans, with governmental AIs' purview being limited to mundane, clerical duties. Due to the posthuman, sapient nature of smart AI, various groups and political parties have campaigned for greater representation by AIs within the government itself for centuries, though beyond governmental advisory bodies made up of or assisted by AIs, such representation has yet to materialize.

The UEG is autonomous from Earth's national governments, and formally exercises power on Earth and the rest of SolCore through a system of protectorates which exist independently of any remaining governments.

Collectively, the UEG's spaceborne services such as the UNSC, the former CMA, and various other extraterrestrial agencies are known as the United Earth Space Corps. However, this term is now chiefly historical and is found mostly in ceremonial contexts.

UEG Secretariat
The Secretariat comprises the UEG's main government branches, called departments, each of which is headed by a secretary. The secretariat overall is headed by the Secretary-General of the United Earth Government.

UEG Parliament
The Parliament is the UEG's bicameral legislature, comprising the Senate and the General Assembly; the upper and lower houses, respectively.

United Earth Courts
The United Earth Courts are the various courts of justice of the United Earth Government's rather elaborate judiciary. The United Earth Supreme Court, located in the Hague, Earth, has the highest level of jurisdiction in all matters within the UEG's sphere of influence, and serves as the ultimate appellate court. The Solar High Court on Luna holds jurisdiction over intra-Solar matters; in addition, the 49 Solar protectorates have individual courts of appeal. Matters concerning worlds under the CAA's authority were centralized to the Colonial Courts of Justice, formerly located in the habitats orbiting Circumstance. Though colonial matters could in theory be addressed as high up as the UEG Supreme Court, this was fairly rare, and bias in favor of Earth interests was common.

Colonial Administration Authority
The Colonial Administration Authority, often shortened to Colonial Authority, was the UEG's extrasolar governing appendage from 2310 up until the instatement of UNSC martial law at the onset of the Covenant War. Although it developed an organizational character distinct from the UEG, by and large the CAA both represented the Earth government's interests outside SolCore and acted as the colonies' primary means of representation within the UEG. This was organized through the Colonial Congress, a CAA legislative body with representatives elected from each colony. However, the CAA was ultimately subordinate to the UEG proper, and though other channels of participation existed for colonies within the UEG, their ability to influence policy was limited as they were not represented in either of the parliamentary assemblies of the UEG proper. Though small reforms were made over time, these were mostly in favor of the Inner Colonies due to their greater representation. This remained the situation for virtually the entire 25th century and fed into the tensions that eventually flared up as the Insurrection.

The CAA maintained its own military force, the Colonial Military Administration, though it was gradually undermined by corruption and superseded by the UNSC. Over the course of the increasing militarization that characterized the early 2500s, many former functions of the CAA were gradually cannibalized into the UNSC, particularly after the CMA's fall from grace. One of these was the Department of Commercial Shipping, which was folded into the UNSC in 2503 due to concerns about coordinating with anti-piracy and anti-insurrection actions. Another was the Department of Colonial Security, the CAA's primary intelligence arm. The CAA presented considerable resistance against the transfer of power to the UNSC in 2527, and was subsequently stripped of its power and reconstituted as the "UNSC Colonial Authority" as a result. Since the war, most of the Colonial Authority's roles have been taken over by the interim Phoenix Initiative, an outgrowth of the initial Reclamation Task Force, which has been forced to take a more hands-off role in the colonies' governance.

United Nations Space Command
The United Nations Space Command (UNSC) is the UEG's primary spaceborne branch and the Earth government's most visible organ off Earth. While it is most notable for its military, the UNSC Armed Forces, the UNSC's purview encompasses far more than military matters, including scientific endeavors, exploration, the construction and upkeep of space-based infrastructure, as well as the management of interstellar commerce. The UNSC's status has grown steadily over the last century as it absorbed former functions and agencies of the CAA and CMA, and finally took over human governance from the UEG's civilian administration at the onset of the Covenant War.