Rivalry between Countries is curated; plumbing is shared (One World Government)

“Rivalry” is mostly curated spectacle; plumbing is shared (money, identity, provenance, networks).

Control-Plane Capital

Oct 15, 2025

a group of dogs playing in the water — Photo by Aldo Houtkamp on Unsplash

Premise (meta-lens)

Incentives > ideals. Control > fairness. Stability > truth.
“Rivalry” is mostly curated spectacle; plumbing is shared (money, identity, provenance, networks).
Read revealed preferences (standards, spend, enforcement), not speeches.

Why “enemies” coordinate (the 6 structural convergences)

States appear adversarial on the surface, but their structural incentives converge far more often than people realize.

That’s why even “enemies” like the US, Russia, and China act in concert when it comes to systemic rules.

Monopoly on Force & Money
- Every state protects force + issuance. Fiat/CBDC is the control layer, not a policy choice.
- Outcome: no major power defects from fiat rails; CBDC pilots surge because interoperable control is leverage.
Stability > Rivalry
- War can be theater; credit/settlement collapse ends rule.
- In shocks, states harmonize: liquidity windows, emergency powers, expanded surveillance — across blocs.
Narrative Preservation
- Legitimacy is an asset. Cohesion beats “truth”.
- Outcome: centralized media norms, staged symbolism, curated science/tech narratives when needed.
Asset Legibility & Seizability
- Title/custody law converges globally so collateral can be swept in crisis (read The Great Taking from David Rogers Webb).
- Implication: broker-/custodian-held claims are policy-contingent; true self-custody is scarce optionality.
Standards as Sovereignty
- Identity, payments, provenance, telecom: one fabric, many flags.
- “Interop” = policy dials that work cross-border. Defection = loss of leverage.
Information Sovereignty
- All blocs share the same fear: lose the infosphere → lose compliance.
- Outcome: convergent AI governance, moderation, provenance mandates; different logos, same knobs.

How coordination happens without a “smoking gun”

Standards + perimeters.

Standards (NGOs, fora, regulators) emit the same verbs: attest, revoke, trace, prove, rollback.
Perimeters (banks, clouds, app stores, ISPs, card networks) flip Acceptable Use Policies; law becomes optional.

Theater guardrails (what they avoid vs what they allow)

Red lines (would expose unification):

Same vendor/OS visibly running rival militaries/ministries.
Shared public root-of-trust keys (cross-signed national ID PKI).
Zero-carveout sanctions (no licenses, no waivers).
Identical crisis timing to the hour.
Single global wallet/consumer brand.
Direct, visible cross-holdings in crown jewel companies.

Green lines (safe to cross):

Co-author standards (3GPP, C2PA, FATF) with 80–90% overlap.
Export controls that withhold edge but allow n−1.
Quiet swap lines, emergency aid, IXPs/peering “for resilience.”
Academic/health data pilots that normalize consent lineage.
Stablecoin corridors with differing retail narratives, shared back-ends.

Canonical “curated rivalry, shared plumbing” domains

Money stack: BIS/IMF/Basel/FATF/CRS, Fed swap lines → one supervisory grammar.
War & security: NPT/SALT/START/Interpol/UN1373 → managed escalation, shared takedown norms.
Tech rails: 3GPP lawful-intercept hooks, content provenance (C2PA), global eID schemas.
Chokepoints: SWIFT/ICANN, Suez/Malacca protection, energy interdependence with waivers.
Trade & supply: WTO accession (China), rare-earths/semis controls with carveouts.
Crisis playbooks: IHR, global NPIs, coordinated fiscal/Quantitative Easing → policy sync by template.
Market discipline: rating/index oligopolies, Basel market-risk/Value at Risk (VaR) orthodoxy → predictable de-risking states can time.

Diagnostic: how to recognize orchestration in real time

Verbs alignment: “attest / revoke / trace / provenance / rollback” appear across agencies/blocs within weeks.
Perimeter harmonization: simultaneous Acceptable Use Policy updates by banks/clouds/app stores.
Asymmetric sanctions: headline bans + transition waivers (plumbing preserved).
Pilot ratchets: “temporary” standards tied to disbursements or identity that never sunset.
Timing cadence: staggered announcements, identical end-states.

TL;DR

Claim: Rivalry is curated; plumbing is shared.
How: Standards set the grammar, perimeters enforce it without statutes.
What’s sacred: monopoly on force/money, stability of credit, asset legibility, narrative control.
Signals: same verbs across jurisdictions; Acceptable Use Policy flips at banks/clouds/app stores; pilot → default ratchets.
Rule: Follow revealed preference. If it increases legibility/steerability, it wins — even across “enemies”.

Synchronization Between Rival Countries: Selected Examples

A. Public Health & Emergency Response

Covid-19 Response: Rival states exhibited near-identical public-health playbooks (lockdowns, mandates, travel controls, QR systems).
International Health Regulations (2005; updated 2020s): Most states (rivals included) accept reporting and response obligations, enabling synchronized restrictions.
Global Travel Regime (APIS, PNR, biometrics): Shared data formats and pre-clearance standards make identity-first mobility interoperable across blocs.

B. Foundational Treaties & “Neutral” Forums

Antarctic Treaty (1959): 58 signatories, including the Soviet Union during the Cold War — hard cooperation in a rivalrous era.
Bank for International Settlements (1930– ): Created for German reparations; evolved into a neutral club for central-bank cooperation that persisted through WWII.

C. Monetary Architecture & Reserve Coordination

World Wars Finance (1914–45): US/UK/Allies quietly synchronized gold/FX controls and capital management to keep war finance functioning.
Bretton Woods (1944) → USD System: Fixed-rate regime anchored on the dollar; IMF/World Bank formed to discipline periphery liquidity.
Post-1971 Petrodollar Bargain (1973– ): US–Saudi–OPEC: oil priced in USD; surpluses recycled into US assets — dollar demand after gold exit.
Plaza (1985) & Louvre (1987) Accords: G5/G7 coordinate FX revaluations to manage US/EU/Japan imbalances — liquidity steered by committee.
Fed Swap Lines & Crisis Cartels (2008, 2020): US Federal Reserve extended dollar lifelines to major foreign central banks (rivals accessed via intermediaries) to prevent system breaks.

D. Prudential, Risk & Compliance Harmonization

Basel I/II/III (1988– ): “Rivals” adopt common bank-capital rules — harmonized definitions of “safe” assets.
Basel Market-Risk & VaR Orthodoxy: Regulators converge on similar risk models, forcing pro-cyclical behavior that can be centrally backstopped.
FATF AML/KYC (1989– ): Global identity-tied finance; anonymity made costly; visibility centralized.
OECD CRS (2014– ): Cross-border tax-information exchange widely embraced; standardized surveillance of ordinary capital.
Cloud & Crypto Compliance Harmonization: Travel Rule, VASP registration, and custody converge across jurisdictions to return novel rails to visibility.

E. Payments, Identity & Global Switches

SWIFT (1973– ) & ICANN (1998– ): Single global payments messaging and root DNS — adversaries share the same chokepoints.
Identity as Universal Substrate (ICAO ePassports, eID): Machine-readable identity adopted globally, including rivals.
CBDC Development: 137 countries and currency unions (≈98% of global GDP) developing CBDCs — remarkable coordination for supposed “rivals”.

F. Capital Ownership, Collateral & Legal Synchrony

“The Great Taking” (David Webb): Across jurisdictions, investors do not directly own broker-held stocks, bank deposits, bonds in custodianship, mortgages, or lien-encumbered land; assets held via custodians/CSDs (DTCC, Euroclear, Clearstream, etc.) are legally collateralizable and sweepable in failure. The legal structure is globally synchronized (a relatively recent shift).

G. Energy, Commodities & Supply

IEA Formation (1974): Consumer countries — often rivals elsewhere — coordinate stock releases and demand curbs after oil shocks.
Russia–Europe Pipelines (1970s–2020s): Even at peak tensions, energy interdependence expanded (e.g., Druzhba, Nord Stream) — mutual hostages as stability.
US–USSR Grain Deals (1970s): Massive US grain shipments to the USSR during Cold War stress to avoid systemic food shocks.
Suez/Malacca Chokepoint Doctrines: Quiet cooperation to keep critical maritime arteries open — commerce before conflict.
Rare-Earths & Critical-Minerals Détente: Despite rhetoric, quotas and flows are often rebalanced rather than severed to prevent supply-chain collapse.

H. Trade, Industrial Policy & Globalization

WTO Accession of China (2001): US/EU admitted a strategic rival, enabling offshoring and disinflation while preserving dollar recycling.
ETSI/3GPP Telecom Standards (2G→5G; 6G upcoming): US/EU/China vendors co-author cellular standards; lawful-intercept hooks standardized — global interop with in-band control options.

I. Space & Technical Détente

Apollo–Soyuz (1975) & ISS (1998– ): Space cooperation with adversaries — de-escalation channels and shared technical norms even amid rivalry.

J. Sanctions, Law Enforcement & Information Control

Interpol, MLATs, UN 1373 (post-2001): Rivals share law-enforcement and counter-terror finance data — normalized cross-border seizure and handoffs.
MLAT/Cloud Data Access (CLOUD Act–style accords): Cross-border legal taps into large-tech clouds, including data on rivals’ citizens — paperwork-based surveillance.
Global Sanctions Choreography with Carve-Outs: Even “maximum pressure” actions leave payment/food/energy lanes — pain without collapse.
Arms-Control “Violations” Managed, Not Ruptured: Cycles of accusation/sanction rarely dissolve core channels; controlled rivalry under shared guardrails.
Global Takedown Norms: Child-safety/terror frameworks justify harmonized de-platforming pipelines for rapid narrative control with minimal treaty work.
C2PA / Content-Provenance Push (2020s): Cross-bloc effort to watermark media at creation — restore attributable flows; control over “open”.

K. Digital Money & “Rival” Convergence

Central-Bank Coordination in Wars (1914–45): Quiet gold/FX controls and capital management kept the monetary core intact under emergency rules.
CBDC Synchronization (current): Extensive parallel development suggests pre-agreed design and policy patterns despite geopolitical rivalry.

I’ve only posted the “safe” examples I have. The list is actually longer.

What this reveals

Rivalry is curated; plumbing is shared. When control or continuity is threatened, standards, swaps, and back-channels override ideology.
One fabric, many flags. Payments, identity, telecom, and provenance standards are global fabrics with policy dials.
Crisis = parameter update. Every shock resets the global knobs, not the fabric.

Across domains — public health, identity, money, risk, energy, trade, space, sanctions, and information control — formal rivals repeatedly synchronize standards, infrastructure, and legal frameworks. The pattern preserves interoperability, centralized visibility, and policy levers, even when public narratives emphasize conflict.

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