This article is actually a forum post responding to an argument regarding the status of the Cardassian Union and how it compares, in terms of power, to other civilizations in the Star Trek universe. Since I went into so much detail, I figured I shouldn't waste the effort and decided to turn that forum post into a blog article. Enjoy. Please comment with any questions, and share this to your Trekkie or Trekker friends!
Since there is still confusion as to who qualifies as a Major Power in the Alpha Quadrant let's break it down a bit. There are several types of political/military powers and different types of influence are classified under different categories. Each category is rather broad and basic but also clarifies some distinction between power levels and power focuses. Power Level is about literally who is stronger, while Power Focus clarifies how a nation state might use their power if it is a defining attribute.
For example, in the real world we have Mega Power, Super Power, Major Power, Major Isolationist Power, Major Mercantile Power, and Minor Power (Isolationist and Mercantile Powers can have Minor Power versions as well). We can apply all of these to Star Trek. To be honest, no one really knows what to do with Raider States or Pirate based societies, so they tend
