Best advice I can give; make friends with all and don't forget the EU guys. Hetman and Nebun are both very good guys. Even after the un-enevitable EU/NA fall-out I still consider them friends. Heck Nebun had me surrounded by several UIF armies just after the Nebun/Vovka line was drawn and all treaties abolished, he still treated me more than fairly.
Keshian also takes a lot of flak for being a troll, but he has never screwed me and even went to great lengths to fix a situation with another BRD.
There is some real hate among some players, don't let it become yours...and whatever you do don't deal goods from one to the other (for ex. keep all BRD deals you do between FCC and allies, likewise when dealing with UIF only sell to their allies............never sell weapons bought from FCC to the UIF and vice versa.)
If you can broker treaties between your trading partners, do it. Even if you have to drop some gold/supplies/goods to make it happen, strengthening smaller clans is always the right thing to do...just make it happen quietly.
My only regret was I never sold back any strat gold in time. Even after all the gold and weapons I gifted others, I still lost 10-15 MW items.
Thanks for the compliment