prolegomenon to the updating of IST placements

[Mamorien]

             D-BOX  IST Placements - Things have changed since
                    1990; population has grown, countries have
                    dissolved and new ones formed.  The IST has
                    changed with them.

 

That they have. Taking Wikipedia's 2015 population estimate as a guideline, here are the countries that would have more ISTs than just the one in their capitol:

• Occupied China: has enough population to support 30 extra teams. Does this mean it's divided into a total of 31 units?
  
• India: Delhi + 28 teams (including the ones that were active as of IST1, at what are now known as Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai).
  
• USA: DC + 7 teams (one of them new; did Seattle get its own IST?).
  
• Indonesia: Jakarta + 6 teams (the three that were already in place as of IST1, the one that opened in '91, and two more).
  
• Brazil: Brasilia + 5 teams (one of them new).
  
• Pakistan: Islamabad + 4 teams (Karachi, Quetta, and two new ones).
  
• Bangladesh: Dhaka + 4 teams (Chittagong, Khulna, and two new ones).
  
• Russia: Moscow + 3 teams (chosen from the USSR teams, spaced to provide nationwide coverage; Murmansk has to be one of them for the sake of its role in protecting the northern latitudes)
  
• Japan: Tokyo + 2 or 3 teams (Osaka, Sapporo, and possibly a new one, unless the Hiroshima and Nagasaki teams count toward the national allotment).
  
• Mexico: Mexico City + 2 or 3 teams (Monterey, Mazatlán and possibly a new one.
  
• Philippines: Manila + 2 teams (Davao and one new one).
  
• Ethiopia: Addis Ababa + 2 new teams.
  
• Vietnam: Hanoi + 2 teams (Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh and one new one).
  
• Egypt: Cairo + 2 teams (Aswan and one more).
  
• Turkey: Ankara + 2 teams (Malatya and one more).
  
• Iran: Tehran (or wherever they set up the provisional capitol) + 2 teams.
  
• Germany: Bonn + 2 teams (Berlin and one more).
  
• Congo: Kinshasa + 1 or 2 teams.
  
• Thailand: Bangkok + 1 or 2 teams (established: Ranong and one more).
  
• France: Paris + 1 or 2 teams (established: Marseilles)
  
• United Kingdom: London + 1 or 2 teams (established: Edinburgh)
  
• Italy: Rome + 1 or 2 teams (Milan)
  
• Burma: Yangon + one more.
  
• Sudan: Khartoum + one more.
  
• Spain: Madrid + one more.
  
• Colombia: Bogota + one more.
  
• Tanzania: Dar es Salaam + one more.
  
• Kenya: Nairobi + one more.
  
• Ukraine: Kiev + Odessa
  
• Argentina: Buenos Aires + one more.
  

Nigeria would qualify for a total of five teams, but only if they've rejoined the UN. If a reunited Korea has joined the UN, they'd qualify for two ISTs, presumably in Seoul and Pyongyang. South Africa would be entitled to a total of two if they got their act together, but that's the one regard in which Krypton-1 continues to do worse than OTL.

The floor is open to thoughts on placement.

[Bob Schroeck]

Wow. Thank you for doing some of my research and number-crunching for me!
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mamorien]

Y'elcome, chief.

[Mamorien]

And part two: post-Communist ISTs.

With the Velvet Divorce of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, IST Prague has presumably been joined by IST Bratislava.

The dissolution of Yugoslavia has the potential to put new ISTs in Ljubljana, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Skopje and Zagreb (in addition to IST Belgrade, which would be in Serbia).

Former Soviet Socialist Republics (and their capitols): Armenia (Yerevan), Azerbaijan (Baku), Belarus (Minsk), Estonia (Tallinn), Georgia (Tbilisi), Kazakhstan (Astana), Kyrgyzstan (Bishkek), Latvia (Riga), Lithuania (Vilnius), Moldova (Chi?inau), Tajikistan (Dushanbe), Turkmenistan (Ashgabat), Ukraine (Kiev, see above), and Uzbekistan (Tashkent).

Anyone else got anything else?

[Mamorien]

I've got a rough draft of the placement ready, with only two questions left before I post it:

1) Is the Sverdlovsk listed in IST1 as having an IST the one in Ukraine, which is still Sverdlovsk, or the one in Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast, which is now Yekaterinenburg?
2) Are fractions of 45 million rounded up or down? Where's the cut-off point? (I want to put it at 35 million so Canada gets a second IST on the grounds of sheer landmass.)

[Bob Schroeck]

1) Oh, jeeze, I have no idea after 25 years. Whichever one works better for you.

2) IIRC, they were rounded up, regardless. Fortunately, there were no cases that I can remember of populations being (45M * N) + 1.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mamorien]

1) In terms of coverage vs. redundancy, Yekaterinenburg works better for me. Thanks!
2) Glad to hear it. Still, I'm not feeling a need to go that far. It happens that setting the rounding-up point at 22.5 million would give Canada and Australia each the second IST their sizes demand of me (I'm thinking Regina and Perth), while having Oz' population as the minimum. On the other hand, it'll mean some recalculation to cover the countries with populations between Canada and Australia.

[robkelk]

Regina isn't a bad choice, but if the North-West Passage is sufficiently open for shipping, Whitehorse might be a better choice. (They could be tasked with Arctic Ocean patrol.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mamorien]

Anchorage and Murmansk already have responsibility for everything north of the 60th parallel, so I wasn't thinking in those terms.

[Mamorien]

Here's the list as it currently stands. ISTs listed before the semicolon for each country are those that were in place as of 1990; cities after the semicolon are those that subsequently got embassies. Cities frequently picked by seeing what showed up on Google Maps at various zoom levels, with an eye to maximizing coverage (which was one of my goals as it was one of Bob's).

• Afghanistan [32.6 million]: Kabul; Kandahar (by 2000).
  
• Algeria [36.6 million]: Algiers; Ain Salah (after 1990).
  
• Argentina [43.4 million]: Buenos Aires; Córdoba (after 1990).
  
• Australia [22.75 million]: Canberra; Perth (after 2010).
  
• Bangladesh [169 million]: Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna; Rangpur, Sylhet (one after 1995, the other by 2015).
  
• Brazil [212 million]: Brasilia, Fortaleza, Manaus, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador; Porto Alegre (after 2010).
  
• Burma [56.3 million]: Yangon; Mandalay (after 1990).
  
• Canada [35.1 million]: Ottawa; Edmonton (after 1990).
  
• China (special garrisons) [1.3615 billion]: Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Harbin, Hong Kong, Jenan, Kunming, Lhasa, Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, Wuhan, Xi'an, Zhengzhou. Apart from Hong Kong, there's probably overlap with the 10 ISTs that were in place before Tiananmen Square and expelled after. Presumably others, but zooming the map far enough in to find them makes it hard for me to determine which ones are significant.
  
• Colombia [46.7 million]: Bogotá; Cartagena (after 1990).
  
• Democratic Republic of the Congo [79.3 million]: Kinshasa; Kisangani, Kolwezi (one after 1990, the other by 2010).
  
• Egypt [88.4 million]: Cairo, Aswan; Luxor (by 2005).
  
• Ethiopia [103 million]: Addis Ababa; Dire Dawa, Mek'ele (one after 1990, the other by 2005).
  
• France [66.3 million]: Paris, Marseilles.
  
• Germany [80.8 million]: Berlin, Bonn; Munich (after 1990).
  
• Ghana [26.6 million]: Accra; Bolgatanga (by 2010).
  
• India: New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai; Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Madurai, Meerut, Nagpur, Patna, Pune, Rajkot, Visakhapatman (all by 1995 [921 million]); Agra, Bhubaneshwar, Hubli-Dharwad, Nellore, Raipur, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Tiruchirappali (two by 2000 [1.006 billion], one by 2005 [1.091 billion], three by 2010 [1.173 billion], the last two by 2015 [1.252 billion]).
  
• Indonesia [256 million]: Jakarta, Banjarmasin, Makassar (Ujung Pandang), Medan; Ambon, Jayapura, Kupang (one by the end of 1991, another by 2005, the last after 2010).
  
• Iran [81.8 million]: Shiraz; Tabriz (after the War), Mashhad (by 2000).
  
• Iraq [33.31 million]: Basra, Mosul (one after the War, the other by 2000).
  
• Italy [61.8 million]: Rome, Milan.
  
• Ivory Coast [23.3 million]: Yamoussoukro; Abidjan (by 2015).
  
• Japan [127 million]: Tokyo, Osaka, Sapporo; Fukuoka (after 1990).
  
• Kenya [45.9 million]: Nairobi; Marsabit (by 1995).
  
• Korea [total 74.1 million]: Seoul, Busan, Pyongyang (all after 2005 if at all).
  
• Madagascar [24.7 million]: Antananarivo; Ambovombe (by 2015).
  
• Malaysia [30.5 million]: Kuala Lumpur; Kota Bharu (by 1995).
  
• Mexico [119 million]: Mexico City, Monterrey; Mazatlán (after 1990), Merida (after 2010).
  
• Morocco [33.32 million]: Rabat; Marrakesh (after 1990).
  
• Mozambique [25.3 million]: Maputo; Mozambique (by 2015).
  
• Nepal [31.6 million]: Kathmandu; Ghorahi (after 1995).
  
• Pakistan [199 million]: Islamabad, Karachi, Quetta; Bahawalpur, Lahore (one after 1990, the other by 2005).
  
• Peru [30.4 million]: Lima; Iquitos (by 1995).
  
• Philippines [110 million]: Manila, Davao; Cebu (by 1995).
  
• Poland [38.3 million]: Warsaw; Gdansk (after 1990).
  
• Russia [136 million]: Moscow, Murmansk, Yakutsk, Yekaterinenburg. (Irkutsk and St. Petersburg both closed due to population loss; the embassies have been given to local superteams.)
  
• Saudi Arabia [27.8 million]: Riyadh; Jeddah (by 2005).
  
• Spain [48.1 million]: Madrid; Barcelona (after 1990).
  
• Sudan [49.7 million]: Khartoum; Port Sudan (after 1990).
  
• Syria [22.9 million]: Damascus; Aleppo (by 2015).
  
• Taiwan [23.2 million]: Taipei, Kaohsiung (both after 2005).
  
• Tanzania [46.1 million]: Dar es Salaam; Mwanza (by 2000).
  
• Thailand [68.1 million]: Bangkok, Ranong; Chiang Mai (after 2010).
  
• Turkey [82.5 million]: Ankara, Malatya; Istanbul (by 2005).
  
• Uganda [39.9 million]: Kampala; Gulu (by 1995).
  
• Ukraine [44 million]: Kiev (after 1991); Odessa.
  
• United Kingdom [64.1 million]: London, Edinburgh.
  
• United States of America [322 million]: Washington DC, Anchorage, Dallas, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York; Seattle (after 2005).
  
• Uzbekistan [29.2 million]: Tashkent (after 1991), Samarkand (by 1995).
  
• Venezuela [29.3 million]: Caracas; Maracaibo (by 2000).
  
• Vietnam [94.3 million]: Hanoi, Thanh-Pho Ho Chi Minh; Da Nang (by 1995).
  
• Yemen [26.7 million]: Sana'a; Aden (by 2010).?
  

Just to get it out of the way, and in case nobody else is crazy enough to think of it: whether IST Fukuoka works with a corporate-backed municipal superteam in their struggle against a nebulous "organization for the promotion of the supreme ideological ideal" is left for Bob and the SJGames legal team to determine.

EDIT: On consideration, Casablanca is too close to Rabat. Also, explanations of the punctuation convention are in order.
EDIT 2: Kumasi's too close to Accra; Tamale's bigger, but I can't quite bring myself to put an IST there.
EDIT 3: Tweaked Taiwan, whom I imagine being given the PRC's UN seat after WWIII, and added a list of placements for reunified Korea if they decide to join the UN.
EDIT 4: Relocated Indonesia's post-1990 embassies to underserved regions.

[Last Free Human]

No IST San Francisco? I am sad.

M
Michael R. Smith (lastfreehuman@gmail.com)
GURPS IST Aleph Wordpress (http://istaleph.wordpress.com/)
GURPS IST Aleph Twitter (http://twitter.com/IstAleph/)
Trek This! Wordpress (http://dthiller.wordpress.com/)
My Blog (http://lastfreehuman.wordpress.com/)

[Mamorien]

LA's where Bob put the West Coast IST; blame him.

[robkelk]

Russia [136 million]: Moscow, Murmansk, Yakutsk, Yekaterinenburg. (Irkutsk and St. Petersburg both closed due to population loss; the embassies have been given to local superteams.)

Is the IST sure they want to give away heavily-fortified bases? That didn't work so well when we tried it at the end of the Cold War... (See the fourth paragraph in this section of the appropriate Wikipedia article).

Although ... since IST's history and OTL's history had diverged significantly by this time, "sale, re-purchase, and demolition" could be adapted into a footnote in the IST timeline.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Mamorien]

Good point, and good solution. Comments, Bob?

[Bob Schroeck]

I see nothing to object to.

(Note to self: With the tidal wave of ideas in the last few weeks I ought to start collating them into a file or files so I can find them when I need them later...)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Mamorien]

I just went over the list of current UN members for OTL, sorting it chronologically for ease of reference, and it looks like the above list is going to need some more tweaking. How much more depends on how many of the new member states on the OTL list became member states at the same time, or indeed at all, on Krypton-1. (Looks like the IST Geneva from LFH's campaign might not be as far-fetched as I thought...)

Edited because "that list" refers to two different lists at different points in the post, and to add:

Yyeah, if you're not already making an offline file, this looks to me like a good time to do so. (I've got separate files for the character writeups, alien templates and worldbuilding, tech notes, Krypton-1's worldbox and a preliminary version of the Krypton and Kirby writeups, and the chapter vignette ideas.)

[Mamorien]

After learning about the regions of Indonesia, I've decided that their additional ISTs should be assigned to those regions not already covered: the Lesser Sundas, the Malukus and Western Papua. Based on what shows up with a Google Maps zoom in on Indonesia, I'm assigning cities accordingly.