Editing The Imperium of Man (section)

===Foreign Policy on Xenos===
For those that complain of the Imperium's genocidal stance against Aliens (especially prior to the Emperor getting stuck on the golden throne), remember that during Humanitiy's earlier years, virtually every xeno they encountered were either genocidal dickheads or sadistic assholes, so can you really blame them? Take for example, the Craftworld Eldar. On the surface, they may seem benign and offer their hand in friendship, just so you are the ones who walk into a Necron Tomb-World and lose millions where they could have done the same and possibly only lost a few hundred. Regardless, this is easier said than done and they prioritize hostile races over occasional allies. Add to that, Big.E wanted an atheistic empire starving the Chaos gods out with science (although given that the Chaos gods thrive on ''emotion itself'' just as much as worship, Big E was probably doomed from the start) all without falling into '[[Men of Iron]] II: Revenge of the Machines', and those xenos that weren't deeply religious and/or psykers tended to go the A.I. way. So in order to avoid any [[Mortarion|unnecessary questions]] and [[Magnus the Red|unhealthy curiosity]], he basically got a standing order to purge everything on sight in place. Said order was duly followed during the Great Crusade proper, but now that the expansion is over, it is applied much less zealously (except when it is, the Imperium is BIG and very decentralized and a lot of the time it's busy with its own problems). 

Overall, the tolerance of xenos vary on their threat to Humanity in the first place, mostly since the Imperium does have not enough resources to even deal with those that possess an actual threat (hence why Ork Charadon and Sautekh Necron empires flourish, and no new crusades are sent to bring down the Tau, despite all three being almost next door to Ultramar). If the Imperium encounters another alien civilization that's only interested in trade and does not pose an obvious threat, then the Imperium (although still strictly supervised by the Inquisition) will trade to a certain extent, via [[Diplomacy]] and the [[Rogue Trader]]s. Put in the fact of the Imperium's "I don't disturb you and you don't disturb me" policy to outsiders, with the fact that there are actually '''A LOT''' of Xenos living within multiple Imperium Worlds contrary of popular opinion, and the fact that the majority of the wars that Humanity has fought was on the defense then the offense (of course this depends wholeheartedly on the Imperium's mood in the first place); you would then realize that on a whole, the Imperium is actually tolerant insofar as it doesn't destroy xenos races right away if they aren't an immediate threat. Granted, they probably would do so if they had the chance and the resources, but right now they have neither and so have learned to just begrudgingly put up with them for the most part. 

An excellent way to understand the Imperium's policies toward aliens is seen in the [[The War of The Beast]] novel series, as it portrays some xenos-sympathizers and populations subjected to them. Ultimately, with threats like Chaos, genestealers, and countless other malevolent forces at large in the galaxy, the Imperium's intolerance is born of crucial necessity, with the xenophobia growing out of it as a by-product. The Imperium cannot afford to be accepting of alien influence and ideas, because you just never know what might be sneaking in with it, and they learned that through painful experience. What might be dismissed as innocent and inconsequential can (and often does) lead to the downfall of entire worlds. The only reason the Tau can act like they can openly befriend the whole galaxy is because they are naively unaware of all of what's out there and what they're potentially inviting in and run the risk of learning the same lessons the Imperium did the hard way. That much has been pointed out by both [[Farsight]] and [[Ciaphas Cain]]. Even with all the above, the Imperium is focused on survival above all else, and if that means working with xenos they may very well do so. [[Roboute Guilliman]] can testify to that, given that said xenos played a major role in his revival.

Besides all of this, the Imperium isn't going around just blamming every species even when it can for a simple reason: the Imperium is cruel and callous, but it is not evil. The Imperium is not a murderer, it is not insane, and it tries to be honorable or at least pragmatic as much as is feasible. Killing a species when it is unnecessary is a waste of resources, if nothing else. The Imperium is a civilization, and is as “civilized” as it can be in the reality it finds itself in. They hate all aliens, even those whom they have accepted as protectorates, allies, neutral, or simply "we live on the same planet, don't mess with us and we won't kill you". However, the Imperium understands the difference between understandable hatred and actually acting on that hatred against beings whose extermination is not necessary. Heck, there are plenty of people whoever is reading this might hate, but you don't go around kill them, do you? Exactly. Not to say the blind fanatics and bloodthirsty zealots don't do that, but any competent sector government runs on cold hard realpolitik. Is it any wonder that the blindly fanatical kill them all groups are always the problem when looking at Imperial campaigns and politics?