Could the Dominion War have been avoided?
- Thread starter hxclespaulplayer
- Start date
Do we actually know for a fact the far side of the wormhole didn't open up in Dominion territory (i.e. do we have a direct canon reference for that )? As far as I know, the area might have been an unregarded backyard of the dominion with an extremely tenuous Dominion presence ...
The Dominion War could have been avoided if the Founders had decided to abandon their imperialist foreign policy.
There are numerous references to the Defiant setting a course for "Dominion space" or being far away from "Dominion space" when visiting the Gamma Quadrant, and there is no indication that the Dominion ever claimed the GQ terminus of the Wormhole as its territory.
There are numerous references to the Defiant setting a course for "Dominion space" or being far away from "Dominion space" when visiting the Gamma Quadrant, and there is no indication that the Dominion ever claimed the GQ terminus of the Wormhole as its territory.
There was no real way to prevent the war, beyond the attempt to destroy the wormhole. The Dominion was making aggressive moves against Alpha Quadrant powers from the very start of Gamma Quadrant exploration. Making first contact through giving a list of ships your empire destroyed is not a good start, at all. The war was guaranteed the moment the Dominion got a foothold in Alpha Quadrant space.
There is no such thing as a perfect situation in life.
By traversing the Gamma Quadrant, the Dominion simply got madder and madder. Look, not everybody is rational, and not everybody even holds the same concept of rationality. The Dominion detested solids, and to them annihilating any solid in their domain/sphere of influence is rational.
Besides, to use your China example, I think not going to the Yellow Sea or Sea of China in a state of cold war makes absolute sense.
I wasn't raising China as an example to discuss real politics, but the point is that there is such a thing as international water, and claiming international water doesn't mean everyone else is obliged to recognize that claim. The Dominion can claim the entire Gamma Quadrant if they want, but they can't realistically enforce the claim. Backing down in the face of irrationality isn't a good way to peacefully coexist. The Dominion, given an inch, would happily take a mile. "A simple threat keeps them out of our side of the anomaly; what can we accomplish with force?"
And yet as the Founders felt hating all solids was rational entering the Gamma Quadrant would inflame more tensions. They may take that as flagrant dismissal of their point and get more brazen.
Either way, the war still IMO was inevitable, and any reasoning with the Dominion would have been futile.
Could the Dominion War have been avoided, anything is possible, but in this case I think the only other realistic option was delaying the war until a few years down the road. As has been said the Founders did not like Solids of any kind, and would only feel safe until all the solids had been subdued.
I just wonder what the Borg would have had to say about that. They may not have been able to assimilate a Founder but a Vorta or Jem'Hadar or Dominion ship would have given what they needed to fight the Dominion.
I just wonder what the Borg would have had to say about that. They may not have been able to assimilate a Founder but a Vorta or Jem'Hadar or Dominion ship would have given what they needed to fight the Dominion.
I would say their cause for alarm was rationally motivated. Think Native Americans losing their lands and way of life acre-by-acre. Also factor in The Founders history and experience of being persecuted. It was their reaction to that alarm and their solution for it that was irrational.
And the Dominion trying to claim ALL the GQ would be like the Federation claiming ALL the AQ. They could claim it all they want but that wouldn't make it true. The Dominion was, by my understanding, a terrorist state - a North Korea or Iran so to speak.
The Dominion pretty much is an aggressive power determined to bring all under their banner. Appeasing them is pretty much akin to Chamberlain and Daladier appeasing Hitler. They'd just demand something else. Even the Search touched on this when the Dominion was testing how much the Federation would appease their demands in the name of peace in that scenario. In the end it only takes one to start a war, even if the Dominion's political maneuvering put the Federation in the position of striking the first blow.
Could the war have been avoided? Sure. The most obvious answer is to collapse the wormhole early on before there is time pressure of an approaching fleet and changeling infiltrators to sabotage such efforts. Though this would pretty much alienate Bajor from the Federation, which is something Sisko was reluctant to do to say the least.
Could the war have been avoided? Sure. The most obvious answer is to collapse the wormhole early on before there is time pressure of an approaching fleet and changeling infiltrators to sabotage such efforts. Though this would pretty much alienate Bajor from the Federation, which is something Sisko was reluctant to do to say the least.
Well, the United States at some point actually were telling everyone else "Stay out of the Latin America, or there will be war" (the Monroe doctrine).
It was likely not the Dominion's territory but rather its sphere of influence. Which the Dominion wanted to be kept out of any other great space power's influence.
There wasn't any evidence that the Dominion had annexed the whole GQ, but it definitely had been dominating it. Emergence of any other great power could hamper this domination.
I wouldn't know about that. The Dominion may be significantly larger than the Federation, but a quadrant is huge, and I mean huge. We're possibly talking 100,000,000,000 stars here - that's one hundred thousand millions. For all we know, on the scale of the entire quadrant the Dominion still isn't much more than a smallish dot, even if they dominate affairs in the region around the wormhole.
But then again, Trek underrepresenting the true size of the galaxy has long been a pet peeve of mine - I've never been able to buy into Picard's 8000 LY figure, for example
Last edited:
^Oops, I honestly hadn't seen that.
Welcome to the Trek BBS @Reymet_2 !
You may not have noticed, but the last reply to this thread was 11 years ago. As a rule, we ask members not to resurrect old threads if they have been inactive for more than a year. If it's a subject you'd like to continue discussing, please just go ahead and create a new thread and link back to any content from the old thread you feel is relevant.
Having said that, as a new member you can't be expected to know all the rules, and others have joined in on the discussion , so I'll leave this one open. Please just keep this rule in mind for future posting.
You may not have noticed, but the last reply to this thread was 11 years ago. As a rule, we ask members not to resurrect old threads if they have been inactive for more than a year. If it's a subject you'd like to continue discussing, please just go ahead and create a new thread and link back to any content from the old thread you feel is relevant.
Having said that, as a new member you can't be expected to know all the rules, and others have joined in on the discussion , so I'll leave this one open. Please just keep this rule in mind for future posting.
The interesting question I have about first contact, what if the Dominion had entertained the Defiant’s message in “The Search” and opened a dialogue, instead of the virtual reality analyzing and basically telling Sisko to go back to the Alpha Quadrant and fuck off?
If they had not revealed their existence as the Founders and let the Vorta slow-roll the Federation in talks, they could have installed Changelings all throughout the Alpha Quadrant and conquered all the major powers from within.
If they had not revealed their existence as the Founders and let the Vorta slow-roll the Federation in talks, they could have installed Changelings all throughout the Alpha Quadrant and conquered all the major powers from within.
Similar threads
