The later half of the twenty first century became an odd mix of war and peace. The Chinese and Russians expanded their influence on all fronts, absorbing many of the nations around them. And so many others came to America and Europe for protection. But the Second Great Depression, the Islamic Jihad, and the Cybernetic Wars had affected them worse than the other nations. It simply took them time to recover. But once they did, neither the Russians nor the Chinese felt like testing them. They all had many new acquisitions to digest after all.