Sela and Tain getting jiggy

[Mark]

You guys COULD be right. I'm just not seeing it.

[Sionnach Glic]

Then why did the Romulans ally with the Feds and Klingons, two races who they'd long had conflicts and rivalries with? Why did the Cardassians ally with a new and unknown faction, and another race that had a reputation for being untrustworthy? Why did they cooperate together to strike the Founders' home world?
Precedent has shown that they're willing to put rivalries aside when it comes to matters that are in their best interests.

[Mark]

Again, conceded. The problem I'm having is with the two races working TOGETHER for an extended period of time (i.e. Federation and Klingons) They'd be so afraid of the other getting an advantage and screwing them over, they'd try to do the same to them first. I guess that's the crux of my point.

[Captain Seafort]

Again, conceded. The problem I'm having is with the two races working TOGETHER for an extended period of time (i.e. Federation and Klingons) They'd be so afraid of the other getting an advantage and screwing them over, they'd try to do the same to them first. I guess that's the crux of my point.

Why? Look at modern countries - they've all got long track records of working closely with someone. The UK and US have been close alllies for over 60 years, France and Germany for over 50 (despite their previous track record of regular wars), and England and it's various successors has been allied to Portugal for over 600 years. Not to mention the various historical alliances of varying closeness and length. Why should Trek powers be any different?

[Sionnach Glic]

France and Britain had a long history of being at each others' throats, sometimes for centuries on end. Yet they both teamed up in WWI and remained fairly alright allies for some time after.

[mlsnoopy]

If Cardasians and Romulans would enter the alliance, the reason wouldn't be Klingon agresion. The Klingons don't have a border with the CU. There sre fed, breen, romulan space among them. But an alliance would be interesting, it would give a nice enemy to the Klingon fed alliance.

[Sionnach Glic]

How do you know that Klingons don't have a border with the Cardies? I don't think there're any canon maps.
And the Cardies did join up with the Dominion due to Klingon aggression.

[Captain Seafort]

The impression from WotW, with the Klingons using DS9 as a staging point, rather than a system within the Empire seems to suggest that they and the Cardassians do not have a common border. Alternatively, they may have been staging the attack from there to give their excuse of defending the AQ more credibility, and to put them closer to Cardassia itself, which is extremely close to the Bajoran border.

[Coalition]

The impression from WotW, with the Klingons using DS9 as a staging point, rather than a system within the Empire seems to suggest that they and the Cardassians do not have a common border. Alternatively, they may have been staging the attack from there to give their excuse of defending the AQ more credibility, and to put them closer to Cardassia itself, which is extremely close to the Bajoran border.

Close is an understatement. How long were Sisko and Jake aboard the Solar/Warp Sailer in the episode "Explorers", and how fast did it go? That can give us a rough time estimate for the distance between Bajor and Cardassia.

For Obsidian Order/Tal Shiar cooperation, I'd argue that they were working together to deal with a much nastier threat. They were smart enough to realize that the Dominion was a future threat to both the Cardassian and Romulan ways of life, and decided to do something about it. Unfortunately, the Founders thought the same, and prepared a trap.

Now if the OO/TS strike had succeeded, or if the Dominion had not come through, then the cracks might have started showing between them.

[Mikey]

No doubt. Any forced marriage like that would only last while their energies were being directed toward a common goal. After that, even if they could be made to trust each other, cross purposed would take over.

[Granitehewer]

there is either a common border or at least contested territory which may constitute one of sorts, i can't remember how it is spelt but something like the ''b'trekka nebula''