@So Boerd: You should just keep the Tier V rating and kick people's ass to Tier IV. I think that, since their sovereignty (at least as far as I understand) is still being fought for, they probably [i]are[/i] firmly in Tier V. If you win the war though, you'll definitively have earned a spot in Tier IV, and with a little international help (which I'm sure you'll get once you're 100% independent), you'll only go up from there.