I was hoping he'd drop in some reference that would explain it, like the take over of world government by Norway after the war (sort of like Poul Anderson's Tau

I was hoping he'd drop in some reference that would explain it, like the take over of world government by Norway after the war (sort of like Poul Anderson's Tau Zero http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tau_Zero). But I guess he just wanted it to be inscrutable.