OK, whole new ballgame.

The time is 2070, the place Earth and its immediate environment.

Some key points in history:

 1998 - The European Common Market is officially formed.
 2000 - The ECM pushes through the UN the establishment of the
International Committee on Scientific Development, a jointly-run
research and development organization mostly supported by the ECM.    
 2001 - The ICSD discovers the secret of cheap, clean, energy-efficient
synthetic-fuel vehicles.
 	OPEC disbands in chaos as mutliple wars break out in the
Middle East.  In response to yet another Syrian invasion, Israel
unleashes its nuclear arsenal, precipitating a limited nuclear
exchange that leaves much of the area uninhabitable.  
 2005 - Numerous legal precedents are set in the US to encourage
growth and development of industry and commerce.  The welfare and
social security programs are abolished, and state governments are
restricted from levying taxes on their populations.  State legislative
functions are turned over to the federal government, and corporations
such as Blackeagle & Blackeagle, LoneStar, and Knight Errant take on
security, law-enforcement, and military capacity.  Huge areas of the
US are declared off-limits as popular revolt becomes common; upper-
and middle-class America is sealed off from the rest of the world. 
 2010 - The ICSD develops limited hyperdrive.  After several
disasterous attempts to use it in short-range transportation, one of
which is responsible for the destruction of large parts of Tokyo, it
is established that the drive is primarily an interstellar transport.