dear Observer...
In the cheese board you will be the fool... Don't laugh too much... kings have the tendency to sarifice fools first...
I have a lot of consideration for people like you. The way you think is always an amazment for me. The pleasure you have to walk near the Edge thinking that it's your way... so funny. The best part in fool's game is the fall
You know from the highest high to the darkness outside of the castle...
Where did you get this idea of limited resources... it's only your knowledge and creativity that has peaked... and man... sorry but that's worst than anything.
You are limited in your mind. You think that by destroying, something, better will be rebuild. destroy to rebuild... what a lowskill set...
Real problems that every Empires faced...
1. USA
what to do with soldier back from the fronts... ( Gladiator... ).
So it will be the first idea of the ennemy of the Federation to raise an army really big ( unstainable = more debt

from within the federation). However the problem is what to do with all the powerfull soliders when they come back home... ( nothing is more free than 1000000 mens with guns and wars techniks ). Some Assholes like you will have the idea of sending them to a lost war...
2. China
The easiest way to destroy an empire as big as china isn't trough raising a gigantic army... The guys that build the wall of China are so hard working that putting them in sustainable debt is impossible. They work hard, they repay all.
So the plan was more to create a structural imbalance in the population. Limiting the number of children to 1. Making that in the farm land ( 50 years ago almost all of China ) boys were the only children wanted. So now there is a country with more boys than woman, a big army, and a country where some area are so polluted that it isn't liveable by western standard. So it's like it was structuraly design for this... The funniest is when the guys that managed it don't realize it themselves... It's always hard to be a puppet.
Again you fool your solution is to send this army to death... so no more population imbalances... However that's wrong and the chineses are smarter.
They are more woman in the world than men... secondly none can predicts the issue of a world war today... it's possible than the only one surviving would be our great "Elites" hidding in some giant underground compnound... however the All powerfull reality is always there... ready to do what they call luck
Republics will always meet a bigger Republic... they are organisation for victory and then defeat...
Federations don't have this problem... they are organisation for peace...
3. Middle East
Mega cultural problem... Isreal and the rest of the Islamic world.
Respect of the Islam value Vs the western value...
I think that in your analysis it's the perfect battleground ? hmmm ??? Stupid fool...
The people in All the Middle East from all the religions and cultures dream only to be in peace and be able to raise their crops if only they could access fresh water in sufficent quantity.
And when I see the stupid leader of Iran, rafansgani shit wat,.. this guy was on tv yesterday. He was the most pathetic man I never seen in my all life... He was showing is little hand with his little balls... What do he think Iran is ? It's no more the Persian Empire... It just a lost country... trying to develop what will never protect it. They can't even refine their own fuel... LOW TECH... worst stupid enough to think that they are doing the right think...They are jeoparidizing the All society of Iran... that's what corruption and Asshole like you can do to a country. Because they don't respect their people... And they are the easiest to manipulate trough their lust of power...
If you had the capacity to think, you will quickly realize that war will always leads to more longterm problem than orignially thought...
And better than all, what you can't imagine, is the capacity of Federations to raise Allies... and you never know where the biggest fish of All comes...
peace