User blog comment:JakePT/Mass Effect 3 to be Revealed at VGA Awards?/@comment-216.40.154.60-20101130050458/@comment-217683-20101130063324

We do actually know there isn't some overarching global government apart from the Systems Alliance. We know that no such government existed at the time the Alliance was created, and none appears to have been created since then, which is why, IIRC, there's at least one mention of the Alliance having to mediate a dispute between the USNA, China, and the EU.