LAST EDITED ON Nov-12-17 AT 08:02 PM (EST)
 
The immediate post-Cold War Earth would have been interesting in UF. Between an American city being wiped off the map twice in the span of a year, the rise of GENOM, and the sudden revelation to world leaders of life beyond Earth, it would be like trying to explain how the Eugenics Wars happened in the 90s of the Star Trek universe and we totally missed them.

True, the period between the Core 1 and First Contact is "short" on a historical scale, but a lot of major events can get packed into a single year. Think of it like X-COM, only the aliens launched a couple of terror missions, then promptly vanished into the aether. Just the very existence of an otherworldly force capable of that level of destruction would radically alter everything from defense spending to cultural values.