It's fiction, but I thought that The Dark Forest (second book of Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem series) did an elegant (and terrifying) job of explaining the Fermi paradox with the maxims of cosmic sociology.
Survival is the primary need of civilization
Civilization continuously grows and expands, but the total matter in the universe remains constant.
Combining these two maxims with game theory leads to the conclusion that the surest path for survival in the universe is to remain completely undetected. Once you have achieved sufficient technology to make yourself known in the universe, other civilizations will logically view you as a technologically competent competitor for the finite resources (matter) in the universe.
In this scenario, there are two paths for survival. The first is to remain completely undetected and carefully develop technology in a manner such that you remain undetected. The second is that you immediately obliterate any civilization that you detect lest they detect and destroy you first.