Strongest Power

[Tim Walker]

The Romulans and the Klingons both have a problem-each other. Given a chance, each would conquer the other.

Failing that, each must guard against invasion by the other-diverting forces away from the Federation's borders.

 

[Push The Button]

Compound interest.

 

[Elder Knight]

Going way back, the Talosians were so dangerous that their system was quarantined, with the only death penalty left on the books.
Sounds pretty grim!

 

[nx1701g]

I know it's not canon but the Star Trek Role playing Game from decipher had created a ranking of the different galactic powers for GM use.

The Dominion and Borg were class 9.
The Federation, Klingons, and Romulans were class 8.
The Cardassians and Ferengi were class 7.

 

[Tenacity]

In a number of scenarios the Klingons conquered the Romulans, and in the real timeline they came close to conquering the Cardassians.

And on that last, it's worth noting that the Cardassians were able to fight the Federation to a stand still in a conflict that lasted for decades.

The Federation eventually had to sign a treaty that no one was happy with.

 

[INACTIVEUSS Einstein]

This is my rating of the Star Trek powers (Q is excluded).

1. Borg
2. Dominion
3. Federation
4. Klingon Empire
5. Romulan Star Empire
6. Cardassian Empire
7. Breen
8. Tholian

Anyone agree or disagree, post your own list.

Leaving out the Borg, since they aren't a political entity, and sticking to local Federation space, my list would be:

Hyperpowers:

01). - The Dominion

Superpowers:

02). - The United Federation of Planets
03). - The Klingon Empire
04). - The Romulan Star Empire

Great Powers:

05). - The Breen Confedracy
06). - The Tholian Assembly
07). - The Cardassian Union
08). - The Sheliak Corporate
09). - The Gorn Hegemony
10). - The Talarian Republic
11). - The Orion Colonies
12). - The Ferengi Alliance
13). - The Tzenkethi Coalition

Minor Powers:

14). - The Kzinti Patriarchy
15). - The Nyberrite Alliance
16). - The Tamarians
17). - The Nausicaans

My favorite non-canon states from video games like Star Trek: Judgement Rites and Star Trek: A Final Unity, would add another superpower or great power; The Chodak, and another minor power; The Elasi. The Vardaine were also interesting.

 

[Annorax849]

Minor Powers:

14). - The Kzinti Patriarchy
15). - The Nyberrite Alliance
16). - The Tamarians
17). - The Nausicaans

My favorite non-canon states from video games like Star Trek: Judgement Rites and Star Trek: A Final Unity, would add another superpower or great power; The Chodak, and another minor power; The Elasi. The Vardaine were also interesting.

Good list, but I noticed you put Tamarians in minor powers. Their ships were quite powerful, are you basing this off the idea that they're just in smaller numbers than the great powers?

 

[Arpy]

I'm surprised by how high the Breen are on your list, USS Einstein. I got the impression the Breen rose to prominence because the Dominion wanted their extra reinforcements when everyone was stretched thin (say if modest power Spain went Axis in 1944). But their shield dampening technology was overcome before the end of the war, and before they entered it, the Dominion didn't form a non-aggression treaty with them like they did the Romulans, Tholians, and Miradorn. They were mentioned little throughout the series, and during the war, Cardassia, not the Breen homeworld, was kept as the Dominion's capital.

 

[SpaceLama]

I guess the Breen defeated a Klingon fleet in centuries past, and according to apocrypha, gave the Ferengi warp drive.

 

[JRoss]

Strongest Powers

Borg (until Janeway wrecked 'em)
Dominion (still have massive assets back in the Gamma Quadrant)
Hirogen (just a hunch, but their territory is massive and their tech is vicious)
Federation (consistently beat the others)
Klingons
Romulans (if they were strong enough to take the Klingons they would have done so)
Ferengi (D'Kora's are comparable to Galaxy-class ships)
Tamarians (ships are stronger than Galaxy's but they don't seem to have large numbers)
Breen (until the war they could dismantle Klingon fleets)
Cardassians (crappy tech but apparently good numbers and routinely target civilians)
Talarians (good enough to go rounds with the Feds)

 

[JRoss]

Judging by how easily a single nebula class was able to dismantle the Cardassians, I would say that military might is not the reason that the Federation agreed to the treaty. In one episode Garak mentions that Cardassians have no concept of war crimes. My guess is that the Federation was just tired of having their civilians targeted.

 

[Arpy]

What would the major powers of the Delta Quadrant be?

 

[Tenacity]

Judging by how easily a single nebula class was able to dismantle the Cardassians

One Cardassian military vessel destroyed in combat and a bunch of helpess freighters.

 

[JRoss]

True, but the military vessel went down in a single salvo.

 

[Nightdiamond]

I sometimes think they originally intended to portray the Cardassians as a major power, just by the way they would portray Cardassians as a major threat.

And then later on, they scaled them down to a local power with economic/resource problems.

One theory I've always had was that the Cardassians had the potential to be a super power, right up there with the Fed.

Problem was they are poorer than the other powers . And behind in other ways.

They have an infrastructure (science, intelligence etc) and a disciplined organized military. And know how to use it.

This probably why we have Cardassians saying their rightful place is at being in charge of the Alpha Quadrant.

 

[Arpy]

I had some sympathy for them from the start. Maybe the combat aspect wasn't portrayed well, but Gul Macet's ship, the Galor Class Trager seemed little match for Enterprise. Macet seemed like a man willing to go down for his people despite the chances of winning, and whatever the class of the military vessel the Phoenix destroyed, it didn't seemed like much of a fight either; though we should remember the Nebula Class is an extremely powerful ship. Overall I got the impression that for whatever reptilian reasons, the Cardassians fought mismatched border wars with the Federation previously, but like with the Talarians, people died on both sides.

That the Federation was in no place to fight another war with them at the moment seemed less about them than the Federation's being spread too thin for other reasons* - no need to pick a fight they'd win, but at higher a cost than they'd like.

The Galors seemed weaker ships in "The Wounded," like midsize ships - maybe why they often came in pairs. Then in "Ensign Ro" Riker called them "top of the line." Probably because they didn't have other physical models for the Cardassians, but, ok, maybe I don't buy them as Galaxy Class strong, but they're being re-presented as stronger than last time. And that, they travel in multiples says something scarily reptilian about them.

I did find it problematic in Preemptive Strike when Evek's ship was taken out by fighters (was this the end of the battleship era and the beginning of a carrier one in Trek?), but they were equipped with larger ship weapons, whatever consolation that was.

That they were impoverished I think was supposed to liken them to Germany after WWI. Though if you think about it, it would take a lot to combat the wealthy Federation, I didn't hold their poverty alone as reason to underestimate their destructive capacity, if they really put their considerable minds to it.

I think DS9 presented them as more dangerous, given that they were the main power in the area. Certainly the were trouble for the Bajorans and others, and in their own literature and minds they were main powers, but even there, the Klingons almost conquered them entirely and they only gained new predominance through the Dominion.

*They beat back the Cardassins in multiple "border wars", the Talarians in a war, we later find out the Tzenkethi too, had recently expanded their number of memberworlds by many (per Admiral Quinn in "Conspiracy"), and had new baddies in the Ferengi and Jarada and others to worry about.

 

[Tenacity]

True, but the military vessel went down in a single salvo.

No, at least that wasn't my impression. The Starfleet vessel did eventually win, but there was a exchange of fire first.

 

[Arpy]

If the Klingons are licking their wounds for a while, Romulus is gone, Cardassia is in ruins, the Breen are in tatters, and the Dominion is cut off, who are the strongest powers around now?

The Federation remains at the top.
Who's #2? Is it still the Klingons?
The Tamarians?
How bad was it for the Breen?
The Tholians didn't lose a single ship.
Neither did the Sheliak or the Talarians or the Tzenkethi.
And is business now really good or bad for the Ferengi? As the money men in the post-war era, are they #2?

 

[Paradise City]

The Federation incurred alot of damage, had key world's occupied and apparently their ability to repair and replace ships is sluggish. I wouldn't be too frisky in putting the Feds forward as the party that came out of the war in the best condition.

In a brushstroke assessment of the strongest powers....

I'd put Dominion No. 1, the Romulans No. 2, Feds and Klingons about as powerful as each other with the Cardassians 4th but catching quickly.

A single Romulan warbird could with relative ease destroy a Galaxy class ship judging from some of the TNG episodes. They also built that mad thing in Nemesis. The Klingons seem much more on par with Starfleet, the Cardassians are inferior enough during The Wounded but have upped their game during DS9's run.

 

[Crazy Eddie]

Why would you put the Federation so high? I know they win every war but that's mainly due to their resourcefulness and ingenuity rather than their military strength.

Resourcefulness and ingenuity isn't a strength?

Consider the following:
An invading army is about to march into your homeland with an army 1000 men strong.
The only thing stopping them is a deep canyon that they cannot cross on their own, and the only way across is the bridge you've been ordered to defend.

What would you rather defend that bridge with?
1) 100 random people with shotguns and pistols
2) 50 army rangers with assault rifles
3) 20 marine scouts with assault rifles and a half dozen humvees
4) 10 special forces commandos with a pair of Bradley IFVs
5) 2 sappers with enough explosives to blow up the bridge

The first four options present an ever increasing amount of gravitas, trading quality for quantity. But only the last one actually guarantees a successful defense; moreover, the successful defense leaves almost no casualties on the defending side and no collateral damage (except for the bridge, of course).

tl;dr "Power" is not the same thing as "the ability to get the job done." You can kill a man with scalpel, but you can't perform surgery with a battle axe.