Colonies

Niccolo Machiavelli (author of "The Prince") advocates using colonies to extend one's power rather than engaging in a full-fledged war to capture territory. Why?

1. Colonies (vs. a full-fledged war) don't completely affect—including destroy—the value of the target, and hence preserve the reason why you are interested in it.
2. They are low-cost compared with a full-blown war.
3. They are reversible and easy to shut down.
4. Information gain: They help you decide whether a full-fledged war to get them is worth it.
5. Resource gain: Once you are "in," you can figure out how to get the colonies' resources for yourself (barter, borrow, or steal).

P.S. European colonists executed this playbook to perfection. There were two types of colonies—extraction colonies and settlement colonies. Extraction colonies were regions where the colonists were only interested in the resources of the colony (most of Africa, India, Indonesia, etc.). Settlement colonies were regions where the colonists' primary goal was to Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V their home countries (Canada, US). To quote a more modern example, the US, which is the primary global colonial power, is running the extraction playbook perfected in the 1600s–1900s.

P.P.S. More of your role at work is that of a colonist than you think or would like to believe.