Internal And External

I said here that, in Satan's World, the Polesotechnic League faces an external threat. However, it does not seem to be external or even to be a threat. The League is infiltrated. Hostile aliens use human agents based in the Solar System to provide a service that some companies become dependent on while those human agents also spy on the League. Given the nature of interstellar space and the number of intelligent species, there was no way to prevent this from happening, which highlights a major vulnerability of the League.

Internal and external factors interact. Some League companies arm barbarians who will later attack the Solar Commonwealth. The Baburites become an external threat but they have been armed by a League cartel. There is no clear boundary between external threats and internal problems. This observation may apply more widely than just to Technic civilization.