What were the terms(speculation of course) of the peace treaty ending the war against the Dominion and it's allies?
Were there any limitation placed on the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant?
Do the shpe shifters need an army and fleet? After all the shape shifters live on on planet in the great link, the Federation, Klingon & Romulan Empire's could establish a squadron to safe guard the planet.
James
I like to believe it was an unconditional surrender on the part of the Dominion (likely), Cardies (definitely), and Breen (harder to justify).
The fate of the Cardassian Union is obvious. The Klingons and Romulans no doubt took territory directly, and I doubt the Federation would have permitted anything but a Starfleet occupation and a Federation-clone government on Cardassia Prime following the war. I would expect full Federation membership within about three decades. Even if there weren't overt motives to occupy the CU, they'd wind up having to out of necessity since the CU has been completely economically and politically shattered. It's also likely the Feds would be nice to them, even if the Cardies did turn coat primarily because they were losing.
As for the Dominion, I think the previous posters are forgetting that the Federation and friends really had the Dominion by the balls--a total victory over the Alpha Quadrant assets of the Dominion and total control over the release of the changeling plague cure to the Gamma Quadrant, thanks to our friends the Prophets and a starship parked in front of the wormhole to prevent Odo from going to the GQ unless permitted. I imagine they demanded that the Dominion GQ fleet be completely disarmed and interned, and this occurred prior to the Federation, and more importantly the Klingons and Romulans, allowed Odo to go cure his people. Afterwards, I'd suspect the Vorta, Jem'Hadar, and Founder populations consolidated each with a planet or planets of their own that became Federation protectorates (because they would need the protection). Since all the Founders ever really wanted was protection from Solids (ideology of order aside), this isn't really a bad outcome for them.
I just find it impossible to imagine the Federation, having fought an apocalyptic war, would blithely permit the Dominion to persist in the enslavement of thousands of worlds on the other side of the galaxy
and regroup for a war of revenge, as soon as they've developed a transwarp/slipstream/ludicrous speed drive. Sure, they may be 70,000 light years away. This has
never stopped anyone else of sufficient threat level. It's like saying the Federation could ignore the Borg, because they're in the Delta Quadrant and pose no threat to Alpha Quadrant people, and all the people they have ever oppressed or destroyed are in the Delta Quadrant. Neither of the premises are actually true (the only difference being that the Federation had no ability to dismantle the Borg Collective, whereas they have the opportunity to dismantle the Dominion).
Especially considering that the Feds attempted genocide on the Founders, to ever permit them to rebuild a capability to harm the Federation is folly of the most unimaginable magnitude. I can't believe any responsible decisionmaker would make that mistake. It's like the Americans and Soviets stopping at the Siegfreid Line and the border of Poland, and then letting the Germans build the bomb while they kept running Auschwitz!
The Breen, of course, were as far as we can tell the least bloodied in the war, and no doubt had resources to continue the struggle if it persisted (even if against a huge, overwhelming alliance). But, unlike Japan, there is every indication that the Breen gave up when the rest did. I suppose a negotiated peace might have been made, but I would also think the impulse for revenge would be most acute with the Breen, who joined the war for purely opportunistic purposes, slagged a whole fleet, and actually bombed Earth. I like to imagine a whole separate campaign waged in Breen Confederacy territory concurrent with the prosecution of the campaign against Cardassia... gives the DW that much more scope, and permits my favored notion of a fate for the Breen similar to the Cardassians'.
)
). Any witheld Jem'Hadar fleets would face identical or greater firepower in the form of Gamma Quadrant independents, leaving the Dominion in a state of civil war from which it is unlikely to recover; the Roms and Klings--under protest from any Fed observers, of course--annihilate Founderworld from orbit and everyone goes home. Jemmie ships do not attempt pursuit because of the Jem'Hadar-eating monsters in the wormhole. Or they do attempt pursuit, and are eaten by the monsters in the wormhole.
