With a growing focus on alliances and politics, maybe it'd be a good idea to create some sort of UN-type organization. Members could join at their will and elect a council of 5 or 7 leaders for a month or so. This council could settle disputes or enact resolutions for its members, who could be expelled for not complying.
I realize this is a wargame, but if there was a growing number of players and politics, it might be cool to have in beta or beyond.

the alliances, or well my alliance at least, already serve this function for individual member countries quite well. add another later of politics to it, and there would at least have to be more finite resources to fight over rather than just straight land.

I have an alliance for this purpose, but until structure allows access limits to specific threads... That way we can have like the G-3 and G-7 etc...