Starfleet's mission to explore strange new worlds and to seek out new life and new civilizations is balanced by its Prime Directive: to avoid interfering in the natural development of any unaligned alien race of lesser development. As a result, first contact with other races is usually seen as the most important and difficult mission Starfleet carries out. First contact sometimes results in a culture being invited to join the Federation, and sometimes leads to conflict.

The Empire is ruled by a High Council run by a single leader, called the Chancellor. The Chancellor has virtually unlimited power within the Empire, so long as he retains the support of the majority of the Council and the major Houses of the Empire. Though capable of performing exploration and scientific missions, these are generally considered beneath a warrior's dignity (unless they result in the discovery of a new race to conquer and rule). The crew of every Klingon vessel hopes for glorious battle.

Indeed, the Empire is so obsessed with espionage that they routinely watch the actions of not only their adversaries -- to a Rihannsu, anyone non-Rihan is an adversary -- but even the most high-ranking among their own people. However, in many ways, this culture has served the Rihannsu people well: their fleets and intelligence services (among them, the Tal'Shiar) are some of the most feared in known space.

The Confederation Fleet is a branch of UCIP whose goal is to bring its participants into UCIP as full members in the future. Comprised of ships from participating governments of the Federation, Klingon Empire, Cardassian Union, Orion Confederacy, Hydran Kingdom, Gorn Confederacy, Kzinti Hegemony, and the Talarian Empire, it is a galactic exchange program whose mission is to bring peace, common exploration and bring more races into UCIP.