In the fictional universe of Star Trek, the United Federation of Planets (UFP) is the interstellar government with which, as part of its space force Starfleet, most of the characters and starships of the franchise are affiliated.

Viewers are rarely given details of the internal workings of the government; however, many episodes refer to the rules and laws that the Federation imposes on the characters and their adventures.

Early in the first season of Star Trek, Captain Kirk had said the Enterprise's authority came from the United Earth Space Probe Agency.

[8] Other writers have noted that Star Trek's Federation has the same logistical and philosophical difficulties of other utopian economic and political schemes that make it seem unrealistic.

[9] However, Star Trek has brought up this idea of slavery or coerced service labor being necessary for its utopian society in "The Measure of a Man", where Captain Jean-Luc Picard successfully defends Data's right to resign from Starfleet in a trial of his sentience, which extends the right not to work to robots alongside all other sentient beings following the in-universe year 42523.7 (2365 AD.).

[10] Like many things in Star Trek, episodes and films may reference entities or laws within the Federation, but viewers are never given a broad view of its inner workings.

Many contemporary terms are assigned to the Federation, but parallels to current government bodies and their roles and responsibilities are pure speculation on the part of fans and critics.

In the Short Treks episode "Calypso", taking place at an unknown time in the distant future, the character of Craft refers to the "V'draysh".

[26] In the 32nd century setting of the third season of Star Trek: Discovery, the Federation had undergone a near-total collapse precipitated by "The Burn", a galaxy-wide disaster.

During the fourth season, the Federation is in the process of rebuilding itself; Starfleet Academy is reopened, new shipbuilding facilities are commissioned, and many former member worlds such as Trill, Ni'Var and Earth rejoin.