Q&A: The politics of ICoS/Geopolitical influences

This is taken from our Santino & Ais Goodreads group. When we got this email, we both talked about what the answer would be. Santino’s much better at articulating specifics of history so he ended up writing the email. Below is the post he put on GR explaining it and the answer that was sent back. A few weeks ago, we received an interesting e-mail from a mysterious individual who asked us some pretty specific questions about our inspiration for the geopolitics in the ICoS universe, whether our views have changed in the current political and global climate of 2014, and whether we think there could be a major armed conflict in our world like there has been in the past (and like there was in ICoS before the series started). Some readers asked me to post my response, so here it is! I’m not including language from the original e-mail since I do not have permission to do so. Paraphrased questions are in bold. Warning: May contain spoilers! Dear Mr. [REDACTED], Thanks for e-mailing us. It was certainly one of the most analytical and thought-provoking messages we’ve gotten in a while! Out of curiosity, did you read the full series or did you start out with the newly edited Director’s Cut? I’m curious because the conflict leading up to the world our characters live in has changed very slightly in the newest edition. The heart of the conflict is the same, but the sides are more streamlined. I apologize in advance for this lengthy reply. Did you change your views of whether an institution like the Agency has...