Chapter Master Lok’ri, I know you are learned and intelligent sort.
So, I shall be polite in imploring you to cut the hyperbole. Any serious attempt at such an action would cost trillions of lives on both sides, and effectively cripple both. Its the exact reason we do not see the Amarr Empire doing more than the general basics of antagonizing the Republic in the current politic climate. The Empires are just too large to effectively subsume one another without extensive, and horrifying displays of extermination to cull out numbers, and even then, the chances of it succeeding now? Unlikely in the extreme.
The Invasions stopped both because the Collective seemed to have achieved a set of objectives, some specified, some not, but also equally, I’d wager, that they may have come close to the point of crippling their own internal economy to PUSH OUT the primary garrison forces of all four empires in the systems they have taken. While I may not be privy to such information, that has been the impression I’ve garnered in my dealings.
I’d also put forward the wager, that they know that they cannot perform such a string of feats, in part or whole, again, against any of the empires, together, or alone, as there is no longer the previous element of surprise.