After playing with the menus etc in game, it did become apparent that I had to instruct various elements to push from IP. First time round, I thought 'how am I going to wreck this place with nobody but me on station - and Winchester to boot!' Then the Menus all made sense once I explored them.
True, I had assumed that the strategic stuff was all managed by the AI (like in F4) but this system actually makes reasonable sense (once the penny drops!).
Cheers. :)