Euro-Middle Eastern War

The European Commonwealth-Middle East War was a conflict between the European Commonwealth and the nations of the Middle East beginning in April 2052 and ended in 2060. It set out the beginning of the Resource Wars.

Prelude
With the global shortages on resources, many small countries across the world went bankrupt. The European Commonwealth, dependent on oil imports from the Middle East, responded to the Middle East's rising oil prices with military action, and the long drawn-out war between the European Commonwealth and the Middle East began. Within two months, this heavily impacted the collapse of the United Nations, resulting in many countries withdrawing, and it eventually disbanded on July 26, 2052.

In 2054, the war had become so widely known and feared that it managed to scare the United States into setting Project Safehouse in motion. The project, financed by junk bonds, was designed to create shelters, called Vaults, for the populace in the event of a nuclear war or deadly plague.

Aftermath
The war came to an end in 2060 as the oil fields in the Middle East ran completely dry. There was no longer a goal in the conflict, and both sides were reduced almost to total ruin. The European Commonwealth dissolved into quarrelling, bickering nation states, fighting over whatever resources had remained.

Behind the scenes
A hypothetical game set in the Resource Wars would involve a crew of soldiers from the Royal Armoured Corps who become stranded in a war-torn anarchistic northern Italy and have to fight their way to the English Channel in quickly degrading vehicles, scavenging replacements, fuel, and weapons as they go.