Resolve: RESET, #1

By Richard Sapienza

The Reset trilogy is a series of science, political and realist fiction novels. Book 1, Resolve chronicles the negotiated geoengineering of Earth to avoid nuclear annihilation, overpopulation and ecological disaster. Future books will portray the terraforming, societal survival and recovery through feasible developing technologies over the first six months and the subsequent reconstitution of global governing from the personal and detailed viewpoints of a wide variety of characters. The trilogy spans a 2 year period of resolution, resettlement and recovery. Ultimately more utopian than dystopian, the story focuses on egalitarian, sociological, and actual scientific advances made and applied set in a time and place that are true to life (i.e. that could actually happen in the real world), abiding by real-world laws of nature. They depict real people, places, and stories in order to be as truthful as possible.

As a fictional imitatio trilogy of the conflict induced cooperation to instigate and the potential consequences of geoengineering sunlight reflection, the fundamental feature is covert use of history and science without parody to create a realist scenario for the near future using the memory and reverence for the great men of the past as heroes to be imitated. 

Realist and other scholars commonly hold that rationally led states can and sometimes do fight when no peaceful bargains exist that both would prefer to war. Against this view, this book shows that under very broad conditions there will exist negotiated settlements that genuinely rational states would mutually prefer.

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Sapienza
• Release date: Nov 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215191453

Richard Sapienza

Suffering from Cassandra Complex I consider myself a lucky man. I was hired under the Research Addressed to National Needs Program at Brookhaven National Lab; helped developed DOE's Energy Conservation Utilization Technology division; and I was trained by my mentor to be a futurist and an optimist. I've worked in and for companies and organizations that want practical and applied solutions for the petroleum, agricultural, food and mining industries as a consultant. I've been ignored, laughed at and revered for ideas, concepts and opinions. I believe science and technology has solutions and ignorance and poverty create most of the world's problems. Previous innovative efforts in applied process chemistry have resulted in a new metal winning process; homogeneous and heterogeneous high activity catalysts; diesel soot reduction, advanced lubricants and additives for submarines and aircraft and created alternative ignition catalysts for advanced monopropellants, slickwater fracking and bio-based deicing and dielectric fluids. The National Research Council has recognized my innovative methanol patent as a future “benchmark discovery in catalysis”. I received an IR&D Award for one of the best technical innovations of 2001 and was a co-winner of a 2014 Innov8 Award. In addition, I built several teams assessing new technology and organized technical teams for pollution reduction and hazardous materials minimization and for the NASA commercial development of space. In addition, I lectured at the university level, have authored over 75 publications and patents and have been an invited speaker at universities, professional meetings, conferences and symposia. At BNL, I was consultant to MIT chemical Engineering Practice School programs and won teaching awards at 2 major universities.

Book preview

Chapter 1  INTRODUCTION. 

Iam Zarveen Fareed .

The power of this historical perspective will have its detractors but their number is likely to be dwarfed by those who consume its appeal to learn about tipping point history. It allows us to have an emotional connection to characters and the happenings that significantly changed our lives. If anything, I hope it sends you on a search to discover more about the real lives and events depicted within these pages.

The unique structure of this book will give an overview of the actual mystery of leader decision-making and the myriad connections selecting a future after the unthinkable events of the last year. I hope it will shape your perspective and let you know which facts were truly relevant and which were incidental. With apologies to science historian James Burke, all the historical events are laid out in logical decisive moments, as and when they happened, and where they all took place. My objective was transcribing the hidden elements of scientific, political and historical content which are often covered up or related in a terse narrative that suits current storytellers.  Although not asked, my thoughts and conversations will show up in some parts of recorded discussions. This was not my intention but at the times of these interruptions, I felt obligated to represent you, my reader, and to ask questions that maybe the other participants understood but confused my limited mind.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether or not the actions described in this tome are a win or loss. A win or loss for America. A win or loss for the Planet. A win or loss for civilization. A win or loss for humanity’s morals! A calculated move or risk, from threat to challenge, from crisis to opportunity? You can decide who are heroes and who are villains or whether there were protagonists or antagonists.

Maybe the current suffering of the globe from these actions might be alleviated or be exacerbated. Will you be able to understand? Will you be able to forgive or will your anger cause greater disruption of our country?

Presidential transcription has a major significance in understanding history. It is the only way oral history, or historical incidents related in a personal manner by people, can be documented and preserved.  Even a very small mistake can change the meaning and context of an entire document, damaging someone’s credibility. When not transcribing, I've spent a lot of time reviewing recordings to become more familiar, as transcripts don't always convey the same tone as a recording.

I mean to create documents so that future scholars and researchers can use them and the public can get to know the mechanism which produced a historically controversial incident that would otherwise remain unknown.  I can never fully replicate the tones and rhythms of the recorded voice and run the risk of obscuring the substance of the interview by leaving thoughts unfinished that could have been clarified through judicious editing.

The story is about the people and the nitty-gritty of key historical events. A story of a bleak moment in human history—converging disasters—and how we confronted that bleakness and of the fervor bringing them under control so that all civilization would not slip away.  It offers some possible ways out of our current trap.

Chapter 2  USA BACKGROUND

You have to feel sorry for President Borden, he’s an old political veteran elected to bring some stability to a divided country after the incredibly, confusing and corrosive situation left in the fumes from the previous administration. He inherited a raging lethal pandemic which numbed our brain’s revulsion to death. He inherited the social media, helping create an apathetic and often ignorant populous. He inherited inter-political rivalry, creating government stalemate with the inability to really address any type of issue. He landed in the growing chorus of correcting and mitigating climate chaos and the mass displacement of people and other species. Borden was to have answers; solutions with little or no consequence to the American way of life - caught in the features of Western political thought and business logic encouraging band-aid approaches aligned with a modern, capitalistic model of creativity, rather than a method that opens up the questions and definitions of what is truly desirable or valuable, and by whom/for whom. This logic regurgitates the need for solutions almost constantly and denies the political nature of what must be designed into the world.

As President, Borden made the first steps to get out of the 20-year mess of the war on terror. And although the country was tired and disgusted with the drawn-out frustrations of this disheveled affair, he was criticized and ridiculed as a conflict neophyte.

Then soon after, to top it all off, he had nuclear Russia invading Ukraine starting something internationally criminal that was literally impossible to stop. Borden had foisted upon him a global mandate to cage the raging bear without hurting the hungry beast. The screams of help from Ukrainian officials, NATO and the media wearied an already fading sensibility producing extraordinarily low approval.

Indeed, inflation remained the big skunk in the Rose Garden for Borden, souring the public as prices rise for food, housing and other necessities at the highest rate in four decades. But, the administration that could not get anything right, that could not catch a break, had been on a roll that any president would relish including a surprisingly robust jobs report; falling gas prices; a drone strike that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist after a two-decade manhunt; the approval of a treaty admitting Finland and Sweden to NATO; — capped off by a landmark achievement of climate, health and tax provisions that made Borden compare favorably to the two-year legislative record of most any other modern president.

weeks before, President Joseph Borden had spoken with President Vladimir Pootska of Russia about Russia’s escalating military invasion and was clear that, if Russia undertakes a further invasion of Ukraine, the United States together with our Allies and partners will respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs on Russia. The President made it clear that the United States always will remain prepared to engage in diplomacy, and equally prepared for other scenarios.

Borden, who is undeniably intelligent and affable, walked into this mess with his resented goofy uncle label making contentious accomplishments in America’s bloodshot eyes almost impossible. He was playing to a tough room at a tough moment. We're alive in a time of worst-case scenarios: The weather has gone uncanny. Old postwar alliances are crumbling. A pandemic draws our global community to a halt.  Everywhere you look there's an omen, a joke whose punchline is the end of the world.

How is a person supposed to live in the shadow of such a grim future?

Who could guess that things could get even worse for him? 

...

OCTOBER 2, 2022

At 8:45 AM on October 2, Chief of Staff, Flora Hull alerted President Borden that a major international crisis was at hand. One hour earlier a United States military surveillance satellite had taken hundreds of aerial photographs of Western Russia. CIA analysts, working around the clock, had deciphered from the pictures conclusive evidence that two Russian centers had experienced a human catastrophe likely at the hands of dissidents or Ukrainian rebels. The most dangerous encounter since the Cuban Missile Crisis had begun.

Secretary of Defense General D. Ripper had also been informed about the satellite photographs of the sites and went to inform President Borden and to immediately call for a meeting of his principal advisers at 9:45. To avoid arousing public concern, the president would maintain his official schedule, meeting periodically with advisors to discuss the status of events in Russia and possible strategies.

...

MORNING OCTOBER 2, 2022 IN OVAL OFFICE

The Secretary of Defense interrupted the President for an urgent meeting including Chief of Staff Flora Hull, one of America’s most clear-eyed Russia experts, someone who has studied Pootska for decades, worked in both Republican and Democratic administrations and has a reputation for truth-telling.

Hull -We are already in the middle of a third World War, whether we’ve fully grasped it or not.

President Joe Biden arrived with a jaunty step, a playful manner and a huge grin. Feeling great, he declared.

The President - Secretary Ripper

Ripper—Two newly released satellite images show that bodies have been strewn in the streets of Rostov and Shikhany, as it appears invading forces unleashed terror there.  The bridge in Rostov was bombed. Here satellite images help us expose the seriousness of these atrocities. The images of that city, a bustling coastal port that its citizens now would describe as hell. This is not a staged video showing bodies in the streets. But take a look. These images are very real and very disturbing. On the left of your screen, that's a verified social media video showing victims in the streets. Now look to the right. These are satellite images show the same bodies and objects on the same street. Meanwhile another city, Shikhany, still fights for its survival from some attack by Ukraine forces.  Other images also directly matched the locations where victim bodies were photographed, where Russia says hundreds of civilians were killed in a massacre.

Hull – Could this be a false flag operation? We’ve suspected Russia of planning false flag attacks to create an excuse for an invasion. Russian-backed journalists have already accused Ukraine's military of a series of highly dubious attacks and are now calling for civilians in the occupied areas to leave.

Ripper – Flora, this is very real and Zelensky must be held accountable. There is big trouble.

Fareed comment—A false flag is a political or military action carried out with the intention of blaming an opponent for it. The term was first used in the 16th Century to describe how pirates flew the flag of a friendly nation to deceive merchant ships into allowing them to draw near. Nations have often done this by staging a real or simulated attack on their own side and saying the enemy did it, as a pretext for going to war.

The President—Secretary Ripper

Ripper: Yes. Well Mr. President, this is a, of course, a serious development. It's one that we, all of us, had not really believed the Ukrainians could carry this far. They seemed to be denying that they were going to bring conflict to Russian soil. Now, I do think they have to set in motion a chain of events that will affect global peace. Russia and Pootska will respond!

I think also that we ought to consider getting some word to Pootska, perhaps through the Canadian ambassador or through their representative at the U.N. You saw the Times story yesterday morning that high Russian officials were saying, Moscow would escalate their war on the West if US-supplied missiles are used against Russian forces, saying: The horsemen of the Apocalypse are already on their way.

The President - I think also that we need a few days to alert our other allies, for consultation with NATO. I'll assume that we can move on this line at the same time to interrupt all air traffic from free world countries and that they stop their planes from coming in. Tell the British and anyone else who's involved at this point, in other words, isolate Russia completely at this particular moment.

Hull—I think, to be realistic, we should assume that this will become fairly widely known, if not in the newspapers, at least by political representatives of both parties within—I would, I'm just picking a figure—I'd say tomorrow.

There’s lots of danger ahead. Pootska is increasingly operating emotionally and likely to use all the weapons at his disposal, including nuclear ones. It’s important not to have any illusions — but equally important not to lose hope.

Every time you think, ’No, he wouldn’t, would he?’ Well, yes, he would. And he wants us to know that, of course. It’s not that we should be intimidated and scared.... We have to prepare for those contingencies and figure out what is it that we’re going to do to head them off.

His visceral emotions are unhealthy and extraordinarily dangerous because there are few checks and balances around Pootska. He spotlighted this during his performance of the National Security Council meeting, where it became very clear that this was his decision. He was in a way taking full responsibility for war, and even the heads of his security and intelligence services looked like they'd been thrown off guard by how fast things were moving.

The Russian war in Ukraine is a calamity—for the people suffering through it, for Ukraine, for Russia, for Europe which has lost its strategic compass, for China which needs stability to develop faster than its competitors, and for most of the world due to the energy and food crises it is triggering.

The President: So Pootska is being driven by emotion right now, not by some kind of logical plan?

Hull: Not completely, he’s an autocrat driven by grievance and pride using deterrence strategy to fight a land war in Europe. When the old doctrines go, only terror remains. And I think there’s been a logical, methodical plan that goes back a very long way, at least to 2007 when he put the world, and certainly Europe, on notice that Moscow would not accept the further expansion of NATO. And then within a year in 2008 NATO gave an open door to Georgia and Ukraine. It absolutely goes back to that juncture.

The President: And then there’s the nuclear element. Many people have thought that we’d never see a large ground war in Europe or a direct confrontation between NATO and Russia, because it could quickly escalate into a nuclear conflict. How close are we getting to that?

Hull: Well, we’re right there. Basically, what President Pootska has said quite explicitly in recent days is that if anybody interferes in Ukraine, they will be met with a response that they’ve never had in [their] history. And he has put Russia’s nuclear forces on high alert. So, he’s making it very clear that nuclear is on the table.

The President: Do you really think he’ll use a nuclear weapon?

Hull: The thing about Pootska is, if he has an instrument, he wants to use it. Why have it if you can’t? He’s already used a nuclear weapon in some respects. Russian operatives poisoned Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium and turned him into a human dirty bomb and polonium was spread all around London at every spot that poor man visited. He died a horrible death as a result.

The Russians have already used a weapons-grade nerve agent, Novichok.

So, if anybody thinks that Pootska wouldn’t use something that he’s got that is unusual and cruel, think again. Every time you think, No, he wouldn’t, would he? Well, yes, he would. And he wants us to know that, of course.

Last but not least, Russia showed the world its embarrassing military paucity. It devalued all the bluff of armaments, the alleged backbone of the illusory Russian power. There's no way for Mr. Pootska to hide Russia’s humiliating loss from its people. If such an outcome became likely, he would use one of his thousands of tactical or battlefield nuclear devices to take out Kharkiv, Odessa or even Kyiv in an attempt to save face and end the war on terms he dictates.

It’s not that we should be intimidated and scared. That’s exactly what he wants us to be. We have to prepare for those contingencies and figure out what is it that we’re going to do to head them off.

The President: I gather you think that sanctions leveled are inadequate to address this much larger threat?

Hull: Absolutely. Sanctions are not going to be enough. Recall that a top Russian official responded immediately, saying that economic wars often turn into real wars.

The President: And you do not think he will necessarily stop at Ukraine?

Hull: Of course, he won’t. Ukraine has become the front line in a struggle, not just for which countries can or cannot be in NATO, or between democracies and autocracies, but in a struggle for maintaining a rules-based system in which the things that countries want are not taken by force. Every country in the world should be paying close attention to this. Yes, there may be countries like China and others who might think that this is permissible, but overall, most countries have benefited from the current international system in terms of trade and economic growth, from investment and an interdependent globalized world. This is pretty much the end of this. That’s what Russia has done.

The President: He’s blown up the rules-based international order.

Hull: Exactly. What stops a lot of people from pulling out of Russia even temporarily is, they will say, ‘Well, the Chinese will just step in.’ This is what every investor always tells me. ‘If I get out, someone else will move in.’ I’m not sure that Russian businesspeople want to wake up one morning and find out the only investors in the Russian economy are Chinese, because then Russia becomes the periphery of China, the Chinese hinterlands, and not another great power that’s operating in tandem with China.

The President: What have we learned about NATO in the last two months?

Hull: In many respects, not good things, initially. Although now we see a significant rallying of the political and diplomatic forces, serious consultations and a spur to action in response to bolster NATO’s military defenses. But we also need to think about it this way. We have had a long-term policy failure going back to the end of the Cold War in terms of thinking about how to manage NATO’s relations with Russia to minimize risk.

Whatever his motives, Pootska is using nuclear deterrence as cover for a massive conventional military offensive. This is an ominous turn of events. To the extent this has ever worked in the nuclear age, it did so by forcing adversaries to adopt cautious, non-confrontational positions.

If this continues much longer, the old logic of