While several real-world leaders exist in the show's universe, most foreign countries have fictional rulers. Real people mentioned in "The West Wing" include Muammar al-Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, King Carl Gustaf, Thabo Mbeki and Osama bin Laden. However, when a peace accord was worked out between Israel and the Palestinian Authority at the start of the show's sixth season, the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority was the fictional Nizar Farad, not Arafat. (By that time in the real world, Arafat was dead and a successor, Rawhi Fattuh, had been elected.)
Entire countries are invented as composite pictures that epitomize many of the problems that plague real nations in certain areas of the world:
Qumar, a fictional oil-rich, terrorist-sponsoring Middle Eastern state, is repeatedly a source of trouble for the Bartlet administration. According to maps on the show, Qumar is in southern Iran, directly across the important Strait of Hormuz. After the September 11 attacks, it became the main venue for the show's terrorism subplots.
Jabal Nafusah (also the name of a real-life Libyan city) seems to be the largest city and the capital, according to maps shown of the country. Qumar is an absolute monarchy, ruled by a sultan and his family. The country is a former British protectorate. The nation was first introduced in the third season where it was mentioned as a close ally of the United States. Qumar continues on the show to be a U.S. ally, though the sultan and other officials were extremely troubled by the Bartlet administration's assassination of Defense Minister Abdul ibn Shareef, and a bombing campaign and invasion that followed Zoey Bartlet's abduction by Qumari extremists (ostensibly in retaliation for Shareef's murder). As a result of the air strikes, gas pipelines were damaged, leading to economic troubles for the country and its European allies.
During the final season episode "The Cold", a situation room map shows the Persian Gulf clearly, but omits Qumar.
Equatorial Kundu is a fictional African nation blighted by AIDS and a civil war resembling the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
When Kundu was first mentioned in season 2, it is led by President Nimbala who is executed by the end of the episode. In January 2003 of the series' timeline ("Inauguration, Part I"), the Arkutu-run government of President Nzele (described as a "sadistic madman") begins an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Induye in Bitanga, killing 200 people. The violence soon spreads outside Bitanga and into the countryside. In President Josiah Bartlet's second inaugural address ("Inauguration Over There"), he announces the new Bartlet Doctrine for the use of force: America shall intervene whenever there are humanitarian interests at stake. With that new doctrine, Bartlet sends a brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, the 101st Airborne Division, and a Marine Expeditionary Unit, a force of 11,000 troops in total, to Kundu ("The California 47th"). As of the episode "Twenty Five," US forces are still operating in Kundu.
In its original appearance, Kundu's location is somewhat ambiguous. President Nimbala and his aide appear to speak Setswana, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa and Botswana, which would imply a Southern African setting. The Season 4 appearance seems to more firmly place the country in West Africa, near to the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Its capital city is Bitanga, which contains a major airport, TV station and a radio station.
In general, "The West Wing" attempts to create an alternative reality, in which there is a subtly different set of historical truths in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In particular, the show tries to suggest that the last "real" president in its timeline is Richard Nixon, and to chart the careers of its principal players in the light of that decision. Nevertheless, there are occasions in which more contemporary presidents are implied.
However, through timeline analysis, it can be assumed that while Richard Nixon was the last President to hold a real-life presidential term, Ronald Reagan was the last real-life President. These are the Presidents and their terms in the West Wing universe:
Fictional Presidents who served between Nixon and Bartlet include one-term Democrat D. Wire Newman (James Cromwell) and two-term Republican Owen Lassiter.
Leo McGarry is mentioned as being Labor Secretary in the administration that was in office in 1993 and 1995. In the first season, an outgoing Supreme Court Justice tells President Bartlet that he had been wanting to retire for 5 years, but waited "for a Democrat." The season four episode "Debate Camp" features a flashback to the days just before Bartlet's inauguration, as Donna Moss meets with her Republican predecessor, Jeff Johnson, who makes it clear that the outgoing Republican administration has been in office for eight years. In season six Leo says that the Republicans have been "out of power for eight years", and Republicans at their convention say "eight (years) is enough".
The passage of time on the show relative to that of the real world is somewhat ambiguous when marked by events of shorter duration (e.g., votes, campaigns). Sorkin has noted in a DVD commentary track for the second season episode "18th and Potomac" that he has tried to avoid tying "The West Wing" to a specific period of time. Despite this, real years are occasionally mentioned, usually in the context of elections and President Bartlet's two-term administration.
The show's presidential elections are held in 2002 and 2006, which are the years of the midterm elections in reality. The election timeline in "The West Wing" matches up with that of the real world until early in the sixth season, when it appears that a year is lost. For example, the filing deadline for the New Hampshire primary, which would normally fall in January 2006, appears in an episode airing in January 2005.
In an interview, John Wells stated that the series began one and a half years into Bartlet's first term and that the election to replace Bartlet was being held at the correct time.
In the season 5 episode "Access", it is mentioned that the Casey Creek crisis occurred during Bartlet's first term, and network footage of the crisis carries the date of November 2001.
Bartlet's first campaign for president is never significantly explored in the series. Bartlet won the election with 48% of the popular vote, 48 million votes, and a 303–235 margin in the Electoral College. Bartlet faced three debates with his Republican opponent, who is assumed to be Lewis D. Eisenhower, the Vice President under Owen Lassiter and an immediate relative to former President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It is mentioned that Bartlet won the third and final debate, which was held eight days before election day in St. Louis, Missouri, and that this helped swing a close election in his favor. Josh Lyman said in the days prior to the election "Bartlet was punching brick walls" as the result seemed too close to call, before the result broke his way. Leo McGarry said the same thing in "Bartlet for America" when he said "It was eight days to go, and we were too close to call".
The campaign for the Democratic nomination is extensively addressed. In the episodes "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen" and "Bartlet for America", flashbacks are used to tell how Bartlet defeated Texas Senator John Hoynes (Tim Matheson) and Washington Senator William Wiley for the Democratic nomination. The flashbacks also reveal how Leo McGarry persuaded Bartlet, who was then governor of New Hampshire, to run for president and how Bartlet ultimately selected John Hoynes as his choice as running mate.