United Federation of Planets

The United Federation of Planets, usually referred to as "the Federation", is a fictional interplanetary federal republic composed of planetary governments depicted in the Star Trek television series and motion pictures. The planetary governments agree to exist semi-autonomously under a single central government based on the principles of universal liberty, rights, and equality, and to share their knowledge and resources in peaceful cooperation and space exploration.

In those episodes and films, the Federation is described as an interstellar federal polity with, as of the year 2373, more than 150 member planets and thousands of colonies spread across 8,000 light years of the Milky Way Galaxy and taking the form of a post-capitalist liberal democracy and constitutional republic.[1] It has also been described as a utopian socialist society.[according to whom?] The Federation is described as stressing, at least nominally, the values of universal liberty, equality, justice, peace and cooperation.[2] The Federation also maintains its own quasi-militaristic and scientific exploratory agency, known as Starfleet (also written as "Star Fleet" in some texts). Starfleet is seen handling many other governmental processes, sometimes with no other agency's influence, such as border defense, diplomatic envoy and has seen extensive use as an offensive military force.[citation needed]

The legislature of the Federation, the Federation Council is located at the Presidio of San Francisco.[3] Several other bodies of the Federation have been depicted. There is an executive branch headed by a Federation President,[4] who keeps offices in the Palais de la Concorde in Paris. There is a judiciary branch as well, the highest court of which is the Federation Supreme Court.[5] The Federation's scientific, diplomatic and defensive/military arm is Starfleet, depicted as being headquartered at Fort Baker, just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge. The Federation comes into military conflict with other major powers in the galaxy such as the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Star Empire, the Cardassian Union, the Borg, and the Dominion.

The United Federation of Planets has existed as part of the Star Trek universe since the first season of the original series and is the primary focus of all the Star Trek series. Several episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise follow events leading up the creation of the Federation, with the final episode featuring the signing of the Federation Charter.