The subject of many episodes involving Romulans is the territorial border between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. It is called the Romulan Neutral Zone or just Neutral Zone.

 

 

 

 

 

The Cardassian Union is a minor power in the galaxy led by a species known as the Cardassians (we joke in star trek online, we call these guys Kardashians) The Cardassians are proud and power hungry people. The Cardassian Union led from Cardassia Prime shares a border with the Federation. Its government is often plagued with internal conflict. Its current governing body is the Detapa council. The Union was previously led by its Secret Intelligence agency the Obsidian Order which acted in a capacity similar to the Romulan Tal Shiar. The Obsidian Order entered into a military alliance with a distant power known as the Dominion. With this backing the Cardassian Union invaded a neutral planet which borded the Federation known as Bajor. The Cardassian occupation of Bajor was an extremely important event in that during the occupation the Cardassians imposed decades of forced labor and genocide amongst the Bajoran people. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Occupation_of_Bajor

 

The Federation eventually pressured the Cardassians to withdraw and Bajor became a member of the Federation and thus entitled to Starfleet protection. The Cardassians for the majority of their existence have been war like. They control a few planets in their space and the colonies formed on moons and planetoids in between. The believe in maintaining order through fear as such they pack as many weapons onto their warships as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Cardassians were used as a pawn during the time the Obsidian Order was in control of their government. They often came out of the loosing end of their alliance with the Dominion during the Dominion War.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dominion exists in the Gamma Quadrant of our Galaxy which even for most spacefaring people is a very long distance away and largely unknown and unexplored. The Dominion is ruled by individuals known as "Founders". The Founders are actually changelings they can in essence, shift their forms around. (Think Chrysalis but less ponyfied and more like clayface from batman) They rule over their Vorta and Jem'hadar subjects. The Vorta and Jem'hadar are genetically engineered species created by the Founders. This ensures absolute loyalty to them. The Vorta are the administraters and commanders of the military. The Jem'Hadar are the actual soldiers. Jem'hadar when born look similar to human children but take a more reptilian form after maturing. Because they are Genetically created by the founders the Vorta and Jem'hadar look at the founders as "Gods" and will do absolutely anything to please and obey them. The Dominion political tactic was usually to use it espionage and subterfuge to gain influence in other governments before moving in it large military forces. (As they did with Cardassia) The Dominions founders make decisions amongst themselves in what they call the "Great link. (In reality they all sort of .. melt into a liquid like state and go into a pool of each others melted bodies and share thoughts, its kinda funny to see) The Dominion had no military doctrine other than to completely overwhelm the enemy. With this tactic in mind their ships were built to carry as many Jem'hadar soldiers as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

The Borg Collective is probably the most feared faction in the Star Trek universe. Existing primarily in the relatively unexplored Delta Quadrant of our space. They are not one species but a collective of several hundred. The Borg have no aspirations other than to "obtain perfection" by forcibly kidnapping organic beings they deem worthy of assimilation. During the assimilation process sentient beings are stripped of their individuality. They remove body parts to make room for cybernetic implants (achieving perfection). They are all linked to one "hive mind" after the assimilation process the former sentient being is effectively turned into a cyborg drone of its former self, unable to act on its own free will but only the will of the hive mind. The Assimilation process could be reversed and an individual could be freed from the collective but not all the cybernetic implants could be removed. Because the Borg assimilated species and technologies from thousands of different species their weaponry is considered to be the strongest in the galaxy. They have no political goals or military goals. Their only goal is to obtain perfection through assimilating every being they can into their collective. Some species were deemed unfit for assimilation and were ignored by the Borg. The Borg have no government the only individual considered to be and "individual" in the Borg collective is the Borg Queen and her role is only that of a supervisor of the trillions of assimilated drones in the Borg Collective. Because the Borg have no ..passion their ships consist of simple geometric shapes. Borg cubes could store 130,000 drones and were equipped with on board assimilation chambers.

 

 

 

Every Starfleet encounter with a Borg vessel ends with heavy losses. The Battle of Wolf 359 which took place about 8 light years from earth (thats actually scary close). Of the 40 starships sent to engage 1 Borg cube 39 were lost and 11,000 people were either killed or assimilated.