Corporations vs Government
Power is still ostensibly in the hands of the governments of various countries and blocs, but the hand of the mega-corporation is rarely far away. The majority of countries are signed up to the League of Industrial Nations which is (in theory) responsible for allocation and awarding of access to resources both on Earth and Beyond. In recent years the League has been accused of institutional corruption, but it continues to remain the gateway to acquiring mining and other similar rights on planets far from Earth.
There are now 5 distinct power blocs that every country is either part of or strongly aligned with: -
- Allied Pacific Consortium
- Federal League of Europe
- African Alliance
- United State of the Americas
- Asian Confederation
The major spacefaring powers are the United State of the Americas and the Federal League of Europe, all others do have some limited space exposure but mostly feed off the other two for their ventures to the High Frontier. A resurgent Russian Federation has recently emerged to almost form a 6th bloc and has also launched its own missions. As well as its recently launched missions it has also been announcing significant advances in weapons research prompting fears of a new cold war between various blocs, their recent allies in China appear to have turned their backs on them so far and the Asian Confederation as a whole have made more peaceful overtures to the west as a whole thus ending the so called “Shendu dongjie” or “deep freeze” that has endured in recent memory.
So-called Mega-Corporations often cross these borders and may command their own resources both on and off world. The authorities try and curb the worst excesses of the Corporations through the Interstellar Commerce Commission but not always with success. The two largest corporations are Weyland-Yutani and Con-Amalgamated, smaller companies include Hyperdyne Systems, Wallace Incorporated, Lunar Industries and Hanimed.
Law & Order
There are two notable organisations responsible for Law Enforcement in the High Frontier, the International Space Police Force (ISPF) or the office of the Federal District Marshalls. Which branch has jurisdiction usually depends upon which government or corporation founded or has majority ruling on the outpost/colony in question, this has led to many issues of jurisdiction when a crime has been committed.
The ISPF was founded in the earliest days of space travel in the 21st century when the idea of crime in space was very much in its infancy. At the time every space-faring nation signed onto its charter with the exception of the then United States of America. The ISPF was then a volunteer force of astronauts who received relatively minimal law-enforcement training (whom the press had dubbed the “Star Cops”). It wasn’t until Nathan Spring (still serving police officer) became the new head in 2028 that they first started to become an effective organisation. The procedures he would lay down would form the basis of policing the new frontier and would provide the foundation of policing that carries forward to this day.
America never officially joined the program but did later allow ISPF offices to be set up on some American installations, a practice that would continue until the duties of the Federal District Marshalls office were expanded to take those duties over.
All colonies, outposts, and space stations over a certain size tend to have an office of one or the other (which one usually depends on the primary sponsor of the outpost in question), occasionally larger settlements can have both. It’s also not uncommon for the two offices to work together if the situation calls for it but as mentioned earlier, jurisdiction issues can delay effective investigation. The ISPF tends to have better local CSI resources than the Marshalls office but the Marshalls tend to have more effective manpower (the ISPF still mostly (but not exclusively) train space personnel as in law enforcement where the Marshalls office take law enforcement officers and train them to work off world).