Why did the Dominion sign a non aggression pact with Bajor?

Why did the Dominion sign a non aggression pact with Bajor? I can understand why they signed one with the Romulans, they were a major military power, but Bajor had no real military strength. Wouldn't the Dominion want to control the planet right next to the Worm Hole, perhaps use it as a staging area, instead of having all their ships and supplies having to fly to Cardassia after entering the AQ?

 

It was more to Bajor's benefit to do so. By not opposing the Dominion, but rather cooperating with it, Bajor was spared being attacked.

 

I think the question was why would the Dominion offer Bajor the pact to begin with?

 

To remove it as an ally to the Federation.

 

"Whoever controls the wormhole, controls the Alpha Quadrant." Benjamin Sisko.

I suppose the Dominion hoped that by having a non-agression pact with Bajor, they could slowly maneuver themselves closer to DS9 and the wormhole without sending in a huge fleet. However, when Starfleet decided to mine the wormhole, they needed to send in a fleet anyway and take the station before it was to late.
By then, the pact had been signed already, even if only just.

 

Such pacts are probably also a standard way for the Dominion to operate when expanding its territories. The less direct conquering with guns they have to do, the better: the Jem'Hadar are an "army in being", a threat that is at its greatest when it is absent. That's why they are invisible, too - they can't actually fight when invisible, but one has to fear them all the time because not seeing them is no proof that they wouldn't be listening...

Treaties, veiled threats and deliberate withholding of force - these are the two favorite weapons of the Dominion.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Exactly. Do as the Dominion 'suggests', or a visit by the Jem'Hadar. For most people, that seems an easy choice I suppose.

 

Agreed. It was made clear many times in DS9 that the Dominion prefers non-violent means of annexation, and resorts to open conquest only when it can't take control through veiled threats or subversion of governments - or simply inviting planets to join. After all, war is not very orderly or safe, and so runs counter to the purpose of the Dominion. The Founders aren't the Klingons - they actually seek peace (which of course they define as "everybody else under our control and kept in check through the knowledge that we're more powerful than they are")

 

I think people tend to look at the Dominion as pure evil, and in the later seasons they were depicted as that. But the original concept of The Dominion was something like the Federation, just not as free and open a society then the Federation. They even wanted the bridges of Dominion ships to be crewed by lots of different species, just like with the Federation, but as with Starfleet bridges, make-up budget made it very difficult to produce a lot of variety.

 

So they didn't have to fight Federation forces coming right out of the wormhole. It was a strategic move designed to deprive the Federation a base of operations in the area.

 

Dominion always thought about long-term objectives. I'm sure the non-aggression pact was a prelude to their plans of eventually conquering Bajor to so they could control the wormhole. They also knew that putting a wedge between the Federation and Bajor was beneficial.

 

why not? tyrants routinely offer all kinds of treaties and non-aggression pacts for strategic advantage or to drive a wedge between allies or potential allies. The Dominion would have adhered to the treaty as long as it was in their interest to do so, and no longer.

 

The Dominion rules almost entirely by psychological means. Now, they have the physical means to back it up, but anytime you actually fight, you have the chance of losing, or at least not winning by as much as you should have. Imagine what is going on in the minds of the various parts of the Dominion when they hear about not only how the Jem'Hadar lost a war (even with a Founder guiding them!), but how the Cardassians rebelled and didn't get wiped out.

No, it's easier to maintain control with just the reputation. Bajor already fought off one Occupation. Plus, that's just one more planet (and a rather strategic one at that!) that the Dominion doesn't have to worry about. As well, the Dominion "non-agression pact" seems to be just the first step into eventually being controlled by the Dominion.

 

By offering a non-aggression treaty and then - more importantly - sticking to its terms once the Federation had left Bajor the Dominion also showed it was trustworthy - a smart political move to help gain allies and supporters in the Alpha Quadrant at a stage when major powers like the Romulans and Breen were still on the sidelines.

 

If I may invoke a certain metaphor from a certain former vice president's lecture-movie.

Throw a frog in boiling water, it will jump out. Raise the temperature gradually, the frog will stay in the water until it dies.

That's exactly what they did to Cardassia and hoped to do to Bajor. Remember, they started out by saying 'We'll just send some Vorta to Bajor, no Gem Hadar'. Then the plan would have been, wait till they get used to that. Then more Vorta. Then maybe, just a few Gem'Hadar, unarmed. Then armed. Before they know it they're a Dominion planet.

It's all about resource management. Take a planet intact without expending any resources, or spend resources to take it demolished. Show the AQ your only enemy is the Federation and you'll be left unharmed if you stay out of it, or show the AQ that you will attack defenseless planets and then have to take on more fronts at the same time.

The Dominion wanted to take the AQ piecemeal. They wanted to take on as few enemies at a time as possible, and get the greatest gain for the least expenditure, and not invading Bajor was the best way to accomplish that.

 

To let their Cardassian allies know that the Dominion is running this show, not the Cardassian Union.

 

I think it's because they knew that Bajor was weary of war, and with a barely-stable government and economy would be eager to avoid another conflict if there was a peaceful alternative. Also, if the Dominion had come to Bajor guns-blazing, every former resistance fighter would immediately go back into full resistance mode and they'd have the same headache the Cardassians had. Since Bajor is only a tiny part of the Alpha Quadrant, why have troops tied up fighting a guerrilla war against a bunch of farmers when they can just remain neutral and be bypassed?

 

I always found this interesting...

When Sisko runs into the conference and says that Bajor must not join the Federation, it must stand alone, he claims he has had a vision of locusts that will destroy Bajor if Bajor joins the Feds. He then describes a vision that he has had:

SISKO
I was on Bajor. B'hala had been
rebuilt. The streets were filled
with people... celebrating.
(a beat)
But then a shadow blocked out the
sun. We looked up and saw a cloud
filling the sky. It was a swarm
of locusts. Billions of them.
They hovered over the city, the
noise was deafening... but just as
quickly as they came, they moved
on. Now I know where they were
going. Cardassia.

I always found it curious that this is indeed what happened. If you interpret the locusts as the Jem'Hadar fleet (and let's face it, their ships do look kinda insect like), then this is exactly what happened.

 

The Dominion never had any trouble dealing with such headaches. If Bajor fought back, Bajor would face disciplinary action - and when the Dominion inflicts that, it works.

The Cardassians apparently wanted Bajorans to do some work for them. Even their orbital refinery relied heavily on local labor. It wouldn't do, then, to simply kill all Bajorans, even though that should be trivially easy for a culture at the technological level of Cardassia.

In contrast, the Dominion would get full strategic advantage from its occupation of Bajor even if it erased all life from Bajor beforehand. Or if it performed one of its more refined tricks, such as giving Bajorans the Quickening bioweapon that does not kill until after the victims have had the opportunity to procreate and perpetuate the species. All sorts of biological enslaving could be put to effect, with greater or lesser effort but generally without any risk to the Dominion itself.

Would this be a good way to start? To show the Alpha species that opposing the Dominion is not a good idea? Probably not. Better to show benevolence towards an insignificantly weak player, and then later on inflict horrible punishment on a formerly strong opponent, for the best possible effect.

Timo Saloniemi

 

PR/propaganda. Bajor was only one planet and had no chance of defeating the Dominion. I think the Founders simply wanted to win the astropolitical PR war, and show their not all about annihilating solids.