United Federation of Planets

The United Federation of Planets is a multi-species polity comprising of many allied powers who have deeply integrated for mutual cooperation and support. The defining principle is that of IDIC - Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations - or Kol-ut-shan in the Vulcan language. It has a history stretching back to the middle of the 22nd Century as a mutual defence pact against the Romulan Star Empire. This is how it remained until the dawn of the 24th Century, when Starfleet under Admiral Vitalia Yukiko Kahurangi instilled a new vitality to the Federation and brought in many new affiliates and members. It has grown in the space of a quarter-century into the preeminent known power in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

Federation Council
The Federation Council is the chief legislative body of the UFP. Every member world, which effectively encompasses all major worlds of member polities, is entitled to a Councillor to represent them. Rather than a single global set of elections, these Councillors have terms mandated by their own governments. Typically this term is either 4 or 6 years. All governments have their own system for handling the process of selecting Councillors, with many rules surrounding nomination and selection.

Although there is no formal party structure involved in the Council, there is nonetheless an informal factional caucus system at work. Five factions are present: the Expansionists; the Pacifists; the Development faction; the Hawks, and the Mercantilists. Each faction has a nominal leader who is known to speak on behalf of the caucus. Others are often behind the scenes powerbrokers.

President of the Federation
The head of state for the UFP is the President of the Federation. Unlike in some systems, the President of the Federation is not directly elected, as it was felt that this could become too problematic to manage across different species, and that homeworlds would dominate over the voices of other colonies. As a result, the President is a Councillor who is selected by the Federation Council to serve as President, the position they will hold for a period of eight years. Like a number of components of the UFP, this is a role that has grown sharply in significance and authority as the decades progressed. Over the last two decades, however, the role has been elevated to quasi-Imperial heights.

The conflating of the Legislative and Executive roles within the Council and President had originally appeared to be a small concern at the birth of the Federation, in much the same way that Commander, Starfleet becoming the second most powerful person in the UFP was not envisioned at the time. Nonetheless, these roles have functioned capably in peacetime and in crisis.

The President swears a separate oath to the Articles of Federation. They have authority to appoint and dismiss the head of Starfleet and the FDS, as well as other Federal departments. They are responsible for appointing the High Commissioners. Their role encompasses other typical executive functions. Since approximately the 2250s and the Federation-Klingon War of the time, the Presidency began to develop further capacity to direct Member Polity departments, a process which has carried over to the new members as well.

As a quirk, it is possible for a President to lose their Council seat before their term is over - if this occurs, they continue on in their role as President, however they lose the ability to vote in Council, and are unable to contend for the next term. When their current term ends, they are removed from the position and the Council. It is considered very problematic when this occurs, as the Presidency is effectively hobbled for the remaining duration.

High Commissioners
These are Ministerial equivalent roles that exist to assist the President. They are separate from Councilors, who are given an oversight role via committees (such as SDOC). Each High Commissioner role has a portfolio, within the scope of which they assist the President in the carrying out of the President's duties.

Assignment of High Commissioners is often a key part of election bargaining within the Council.

Starfleet
Starfleet is a multi-purpose fleet that answers directly to the Articles of Federation, thus serving the UFP as a whole. It is nominally a principally peaceful exploration service, however, it also forms the first line of defence for the Federation.

During times of crisis, Starfleet is empowered to request from the Federation Council the declaration of a State of Emergency. This SoE provides extremely broad and comprehensive powers to compel cooperation from Federation members, and is thus only taken at great need. It is also the reason why the role of Commander, Starfleet is appointed directly by the President of the Federation and is a matter of such careful consideration.

Federation Diplomatic Service
A major arm of the United Federation of Planets. The Federation Diplomatic Service provides a crucial function as the diplomatic mortar that holds the member worlds of the Federation together. In addition to this principle role maintaining peace and harmony between members, they also have an important role to play in assisting Starfleet in diplomatically engaging with external polities.

Nominally speaking, the FDS is also entitled to request a State of Emergency, however, this has only been requested twice and granted once in the history of the UFP.

Member Powers & Worlds
Despite casual discussion often speaking in terms of "member species", the Federation is actually made up of allied interstellar polities. These polities usually represent the homeworld and interstellar presence (major colonies) of a particular sapient species, but this is not synonymous with the species themselves. Many minor colonies exist who for reasons of culture and history have chosen to declare themselves independent of the polity centered around their homeworld and hence are not part of it or the Federation. In addition some Federation Members with a particularly long interstellar history, notably the Orion Union and the United Worlds of Rigel, have large enough minority-species populations to be effectively multi-species polities all on their own.

Listed below are political entities that make up current Federation membership.


 * United Earth - 2161.Q3
 * Tellar State - 2161.Q3
 * Vulcan Central Directorate - 2161.Q3
 * Andorian Empire - 2161.Q3
 * Confederacy of Amarkia - 2306.Q4
 * Illuminated Technocracy of Gaen - 2316.Q3
 * Caitian Cooperative - 2310.Q3
 * Houses of Betazed - 2308.Q3
 * Caldonian Science Directorate - 2318.Q4
 * United Worlds of Rigel - 2311.Q3
 * United Hives of Apinae - 2313.Q2
 * The Indorian Congress - 2313.Q2
 * The Orion Union - 2317.Q3
 * The Republic of Qloath - 2319.Q4
 * Iridum Kingdom - 2319.Q4
 * Seyek Union - 2319.Q4
 * The Risan Hedony - 2320.Q3
 * The Ked Paddah - 2323.Q3
 * The Star-Kin - 2323.Q4
 * Obar - 2323.Q4
 * Vail Council - 2323.Q4

Acts and Legislation

 * Anti-Slavery Act of 2310
 * Safety and Unity Act of 2312 - Led to establishment of a joint Amarkian-Orion ground force to conduct operations on Celos; the Aeroknights.