Star Trek

"Sure it reinforces a few elements of canon and then the author draws their own conclusions, I have exactly zero problem with the Vulcans themselves taking an advisory role to new position of leadership in the Federation. The Andorians and the Tellarites however have very large egos when it comes to taking a back seat to an upstart species." - satyrquaze

Little is known about The Romulan Wars, but DS9 suggested the Wars made it to earth. ENT's "Demons" and "Terra Prime" show the Delegation Hall where the charter is negotiated. Likewise, "These Are The Voyages..." has Archer saying, "We're on our way to Earth to sign the charter." Earth's centrality for charter negotiations makes it a likely target for Romulan attack. Despite any ego, I doubt the Andorians or Tellarites want to make their home planet a target.

"Add to that according to the timeline, Starfleet couldn’t have had more than 5 NX-class ships in service during the Romulan War." - satyrquaze

Starfleet via 2150's was equipped with ships like Intripid and Delta http://www.shipschematics.net/startrek/federation_data.php?filter=Official. Though bound to the Sol System, these smaller sized ships undoubtably lent themselves to mass production for localized defense. There could have also been additional freighters that were drafted into the war. "The Romulan Wars: Beneath the Raptor's Wings" posits the Daedalus Class Vessels existed before the NX Class, recieved the first major refit, and could be mass produced in short order to form the basis of a fleet. The size of the Andorian and Tellarite Fleets are unknown, as well as the damage sustained during the Romulan Wars. Earth may have emerged from the wars in a far more desirable condition than its allies.

Planetary conditions may also have been a determining factor to the Federation's Headquarters and Representational Bodies. Earth was shown to be hospitable to all the primary and founding member delegates. Vulcan was hot for humans, and no doubt too hot for Andorians. Likewise, Andoria was probably too cold for Vulcans. I will admit a mention of such considerations would have been nice.

"I was actually thinking of the time that Jean Luc said “Merde” on the Bridge of the Enterprise and it wasn’t translated. (The Last Outpost)" - satyrquaze

I suspect the UT, like any other piece of technology, could be turned off. I suspect alien officers would know how to speak the dominant language (whether English, Vulcan, Andorian, etc...) aboard the ship for which they serve. Not only would it be advisable for professional conduct, but for personal interactions off duty too.

It’s all well and good that the English is on the rise and is being taught as a second language, but for every 1 person speaking English there are three people speaking Chinese, and it’s going to continue to be that way for a very long time. - satyrquaze

That's due purely to China's population volumn. If World War III hit, the number would no doubt be reduced through the spread of disease caused by density. Now just because the primary langauge spoken is English, it does not mean our Star Trek character's aren't well versed in other earth languages.

That “humanist philosophy” that you speak of is that no matter what our race, creed, religion, culture, or gender we will always be able to work together towards a common goal. I like to think that this philosophy also includes all the species of the Federation as far as Starfleet is concerned. My point is based on all appearnaces, it doesn’t. I mean, they pay lip-service to it all the time, but as near as I can tell Starfleet is about 80% Human. - satyrquaze

Consider that we see the Star Trek scenario from a tunnelized view, dictated strongly by real world economics. But that aside, there are answers even within the confines of the Star Trek universe. Many aliens may not want to join Starfleet, preferring their own planet's space program. Sarek originally wished such for Spock. It would also suggest that not all alien life forms encountered can breath oxygen. Perhaps other Federation Starships are dedicated to alternative gaseous environments.

I would agree that ST is in fact that. After all, Starfleet WAS a human-created entity, and the prepomdernace of characters have been Starfleet officers, or working alongside them. The stories st tells are allegories of the human condition, displayed in characters both human, and alien, aspects of our nature we find reflected in main characters, and others. The ideals we humans at our best portray are found in commanlity in other species, but, it's at basic a set of series about humans, in a future society of an interstellar democracy, a unique, certainly from OUR P.O.V., creation.

Actually, there's a pretty easy explanation.  Earth is constantly being attacked because it is the headquarters of both the Federation and Starfleet.  If they were located on Andorr or Vulcan, those planets would be attacked all the time.

Which is probably why Andorr and Vulcan allowed Earth to host these respective entities in the first place, knowing that their planets would be low-priority targets...and, of course, to toss a couple of token bones to those uppity humans.