Alright, time for the FDS memo to the Admiral:
The Interstellar Commonwealth has various complications that they can present. Their approach to threats has been honed to be very robust, and they have learned it is rarely a good idea to leave threats to re-coalesce. However, they are philosophically sympathetic to the Federation, and vice versa. Their willingness to initiate a War of Conquest is effectively nil. Even against an emergent threat, a war is not the first option. However, if someone starts shooting, that hostile actor will find it extremely difficult to extricate themselves from the conflict that results. Culturally speaking, there is little focus on starting a war, but a considerable emphasis on the idea of finishing a war. Likewise, the challenge here for the Federation would be that if they join in with the ISC in a defensive campaign, we may reach a point where the Federation would be satisfied with a peace treaty or a surrender with terms, but the ISC wishes to completely suppress the threat vector. Certainly, the words 'status quo ante bellum' are not part of their strategic lexicon.
Despite this approach to warfare, the Interstellar Commonwealth, as near as can be ascertained by an FDS Investigatory Arm that was burnt once over the Arcadian-Ked Paddah conflict, are not a cause of interstellar-political tensions. By and large, they keep to a slow and thorough expansion, as opposed to other powers like the Cardassians, Klingons, and Romulans, who claimed large swathes of space and are now in-filling (with varying levels of desperation). They are few great cultural sticking points, arguably considerably less than existed between the Federation and the Hives of the Apiata..
All in all, the Interstellar Commonwealth presents no first-order direct strategic challenge, but a few second-order challenges.
