The Dominion cold war was a period of events between the initial official first contact between the United Federation of Planets and the Dominion in late 2370, to the onset of the Dominion War three years later. The cold war was largely defined by repeated Dominion infiltration of various Alpha Quadrant powers, intending to unravel the political alliances that had largely kept the quadrant in peace. Several of these infiltrations were highly successful, triggering conflicts between major powers.