“Black List” – I think that some thing can be changed in the way its put forward so that you can give it some In Character validity:

Firstly, we could change the name from “Black List” to perhaps something like “Target Provinces/Dynasties”, and you can validate this by saying you have weighed up the economic advantages of the regions these Dynasties control and have found they have great potential if they were “absorbed into the Republic”.

You can further validate it by noting the civilisating (ok, not a word but you know what I mean) influence of the Republic on the peoples under the “barbaric yoke” of those factions etc etc. I’m sure you can spool out some rhetoric.

We have to come up with some arguments against the Republic being insular, which will be difficult as the Republic was traditionally insular.

We certainly need to streamline the acceptance or otherwise of alliance requests, validating it In Character is a bit harder but as long as the players are aware Out of Character of the real reason behind this list then I think we won’t have an issue.

I would also suggest that a full list of ALL the in-game “known” factions be made and the Senate can vote who we consider “worthy” of alliance.