Global Defense Initiative

Command & Conquer is a real-time strategy video game series which revolves around conflicts between various competing factions vying for world domination. There are three different storylines, each with three main factions, as well as various minor factions. The majority of these are based on real-world human organizations, such as the Soviet Union and the United States of America, with a single one, the Scrin, being alien.

The Tiberium series, which includes the original Command and Conquer game, is set in an alternate history. The three main factions of this series are the Global Defense Initiative, Brotherhood of Nod, and Scrin.

The Global Defense Initiative has a similar internal structure and administrative hierarchy to a modern-day supranational body; integrating the armies and resources of the richest and most powerful nations. GDI is capable of instantly deploying vast quantities of well-trained and well-equipped soldiers backed by powerful ground, air and naval assets. GDI assets are able to deploy globally, quickly and with lethal force. Comparably, modern day armed forces lack the organisational, technological and numerical superiority of GDI armed forces. Global Defense Initiative troops utilize both superior armor and firepower, making them typically more powerful than their Nod counterparts—especially in open and direct engagements.However, GDI military doctrine has shown to be more cumbersome and lacking flexibility. The Brotherhood is notoriously adept at exploiting these weaknesses with a mixture of low-tech guerilla tactics and a combination of advanced Tiberium-based technologies. By the year 2047 GDI's forces have been restructured to allow for decentralized operations in multiple theatres of war, through the establishment of forward-operating bases in all types of terrain, and the deployment of proven, specialized and cost-effective ground and air forces supported by the most advanced network of orbital artillery satellites in history. In-game, their units are unit-for-unit more powerful than those of Nod and the Scrin. Their superweapon is the ion cannon, an orbital weapon that has appeared in every Tiberium title to date; previously capable of destroying only a single building at a time, the ion cannon can now devastate a large area, through 8 small ion beams forming up into the center and ionising the air before the larger, more destructive main blast.

The Brotherhood of Nod is a highly militant society of allegedly ancient origins. Throughout its struggle with GDI, Nod is shown possessing characteristics of a vast religious movement, a multinational corporation and a decentralized nation-state, while being none of the three in itself. The globalized brotherhood is led by a mysterious man known only as Kane, and its influence at the advent of the events in Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars reached nothing short of the status of an unconventional superpower. The Brotherhood of Nod represents a flexible, elusive and worldwide cultic army which thrives on the sophisticated synergy between low-tech guerrilla warfare and advanced forces equipped with state-of-the-art weapon systems derived from the Brotherhood's understanding of Tiberium-based military technologies. Nod tactics are highly radical and appear unethical, often showing little regard for human life. In addition, their religious fascination with Tiberium has led them to use the substance as an offensive chemical. Nod is also characterized by internal conflicts and the death that resulted; with the exception of Command & Conquer: Renegade, characters of the Brotherhood of Nod in Command & Conquer series of games have always been killed by a Nod member. Nod forces typically are weaker than GDI's or Scrin's in a head-on engagement, yet they use stealth and advanced hit-and-run tactics to their advantage to take control of the battle and sabotage an opponent's momentum. Their in-game superweapon is a nuclear missile, although in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun and its expansion pack, they use a conventional cluster missile and, if there are Tiberium waste on the battlefield, a chemical missile.

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