One of the things I've always really enjoyed about GalCiv 2, as compared with, say, the Civ series, is that in Gal Civ 2, at least on the "Tough" difficulty level, it is genuinely feasible to play as a peacemonger.  I focus on economic, diplomatic, trade, population, and morale techs.  I either trade for military techs or research them when they become bargain-priced.  I build econ and influence starbases galore, and equip them with battlestations as a static defense, and then leave my planets essentially military-free.  If ever necessary, I can generally build a decent defense force when war looks inevitable, or even after it has already been declared.

I have only a limited amount of GalCiv experience, so I'd be interested in hearing any particular strategies that people have in pursuing a more peaceful game.  Most predominantly, though, one thing that always bothers me is that, as far as I can tell, influence will never cause a minor race, or a starbase, to flip.  Both those things seem a little counterintuitive to me.  With minor races in particular, when I've got a one-planet minor, entirely surrounded by my culture, and easily overwhelmed by me militarilly if I ever chose to build a military, it's kind of disappointing that there is no apparent peaceful manner to bring that planet into my federation, so to speak.  It's even more annoying if that one-planet minor has also cultivated a resource or two with starbases.  All of that could so easily be mine if I took an iron fist to the galaxy rather than a silk glove.  Are there any options in such circumstances rather than attacking the indiginous race?