I've been building strength in the galactic north of my two-arm spiral. There is a Militant Isolationist FE at the end of my spiral with a good buffer zone between us. To the galactic east of my empire were two others who did not like me very much.
The galaxy was limited to hyperdrive (seriously like my favorite thing to do now) so I've been able to lock down and build defenses on my planets while I outresearch everyone else thanks to dedicated research planets and the goldmine of social tech that is the stone age primitive planet. I wound up allying myself with the faction neighboring me on the inner arm in an effort to lock down the only point in my empire that led to the patchwork of empires south of me. We opened our borders and now my materialistic empire has a large number of agriculturally adept fungoids to man the hydroponic facilities.
It was just before my first war that I noticed a possible problem with the current state of affairs in my galaxy: fully one third of the empires had joined a single federation. I was part of a three-way alliance, and everyone else was independent (including both of my neighbors to the east, luckily). My standing among the primary combined powers in the galaxy was balanced on a razor's edge - half of them hated me, but the others were good friends. Of course the Federation president had the worst relationship with me, and so I went about placing an embassy within his empire.
Relations with my closest eastern neighbor broke down and they declared war on us. It was a mistake they regretted, as my fleet and those of my two allies steamrolled through their empire and annihilated any military capacity they had. These birdmen were vassalized.
Once I was able to I began to integrate them into my empire. The empire that stood east of my vassal, my only other nearby neighbor in the arm (excluding the isolationists), declared war on my vassal, and so my fleet was called in along with my allies' once more. Though they put up a good fight, taking out nearly half of my capital ships and most of my screening fleet, they too became my vassals. With my immediate space secured, I opted out of my alliance and began a full campaign to align myself with the massive federation of mostly militant states.
Currently I stand as the peak of individual power in an empire in all fields, barring that of the Fallen Empire. Relations with the Federation are on the rise, and I still hold good relations with my old allies. Politically at this point I have no enemies. The first empire I conquered has been integrated and I've begun work on the second. My immediate plans include joining the Federation and building up a massive fleet for an assault on the ring worlds of the Fallen Empire in an effort to fully secure my half of the galactic arm.