From the introduction: The year is 2056. The world has witnessed great wars, famine, and a general state of decline. Technology and living standards are highly variable in most areas. Thu world political situation is a mess. Many nations fragmented after the Corporation Wars and the Flugen plague. Since then regions have split off in a process of Balkanization. In most cases, governments control more limited areas, or in some cases as little as a single city. The US, while technically controlling most of Canada and Central America, maintains an isolationist policy; trying to maintain interior control and limit the power of the corporations so that the Rise of the Syndics in 2017 will not be repeated. Several areas within the US have limited autonomy, notably the Republics of Texas and California.