Korea and Japan worked together (I like to bring people who currently aren't to common ground) and had the "pick of the crop" in terms of settlement which they exploited pretty well - the Japanese economy was also pretty, surprisingly, robust. It's also a nice counter having multiple important asian nations rather than just one or two usual suspects.

The Andean Alliance as it stands should be a power of relevance and it was one of the lesser major powers in a previous iteration. Italy.. well, Italy was the one who essentially had to cling to being roman to be relevant, to be fair. I mean, the Andean's had a reasonably comprehensive plan for survival while italy sort of ejected itself from the EU and winged its way out of there like a true Aquila.

Such champs. They probably have the papacy too, now that I think of it.

EDIT: I'm also probably accepting my fate as returning to space commies, considering a lot of information I have relies on the canonicity of their stuff and its the best way to make that happen.