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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Be it thy course to busy giddy minds with foreign quarrels."''
|'''King Henry IV''', '''''[[William Shakespeare|Henry IV, Part 2]]'''''}}
OK, so you have a bunch of different factions who fight against each other all the time. Wouldn't it be so much better if they could all get along? Unfortunately, that's not going to happen, as they hate each other's guts.
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However, it's said that [[Enemy Mine|the enemy of my enemy is my friend]]. Hence, it follows that if you want to unite people, you must create a common enemy for them to oppose.
This is not for every incidence of enemy factions teaming up against a common
The threat itself is often a [[Sword of Damocles]].
Can be a Sub-trope of [[Zero-Approval Gambit]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* In ''[[Code Geass]]'', {{spoiler|Lelouch makes ''himself'' this threat, and then goes a step further by arranging his own assassination, thus creating world peace}}. Interestingly enough, {{spoiler|his sister, Nunnally, was trying the same thing with Damocles}}. It's [[In the Blood]], it seems.
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==
* In ''[[Watchmen]]'', the [[Big Bad]] plans to force America and Russia to put aside their differences and work together by {{spoiler|making it seem as if a massive [[Alien Invasion]] is imminent.}} Whether or not it works on the long run is left up to the reader.
* In ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'', Cable once resurrected Apocalypse as a common threat to unite the fractious mutants.
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** Cable turned ''himself'' into one of these in ''Cable And Deadpool''. It all works out until Reed Richards calls in {{spoiler|the friggin' ''[[Silver Surfer]]''}} to take him down.
** It should be noted, however, that being {{spoiler|taken down was Cable's entire plan in the first place}}. And he still pulled off a pretty sick display of power defending against the {{spoiler|Surfer.}}
* In an issue of Marvel's ''[[What If?]]
* ''[[Camelot 3000 AD]]'' has an interesting version. The newly resurrected knights are not dealing well with each other, so Kai, who was always the least liked of the knights, chooses to remain in the role by acting like an asshole towards the other knights. Thus he gives the other knights someone common to look down
== Film ==
* In ''[[Canadian Bacon]]'', the government of the U.S.A. tries to curb economic recession and civilian discontent by renewing the Cold War. When it turns out that Russia is not interested in playing along, the United States government and the media embark on a campaign to unite Americans in a hatred of Canada, of all peoples. Turns out to be a bad idea.
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* Jacen Solo does this in the ''[[Legacy of the Force]]'' novels. The catch? {{spoiler|He's the threat, which makes this a [[Thanatos Gambit]] to boot}}
* ''[[Illuminatus]]'': Among the ([[Gambit Pileup|many, many]]) conspiracies is that the government(s) use this to keep the populace distracted from their own sinister agendas. A character is told to watch China after the USSR falls.
* ''[[Angels
* ''[[Discworld]]'': [[Magnificent Bastard]] Havelock Vetinari of manages to pull off an interesting variant; he knows the heads of the various guilds of Ankh-Morpork want nothing more than to see him "dancing the hemp fandango", but the only thing keeping him alive is one common
* [[Ursula K. Le Guin|Ursula K. LeGuin's]] ''The Lathe of Heaven'' uses the threat of aliens to unite the nations of Earth.
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'': Global power blocs Eastasia, Eurasia, and Oceania are locked in constant war. The alliances between the three change so that one state can never become too powerful and dominate the others. This is an understanding between the three powers that's been ongoing for decades. The real objective is to provide a focus for their own citizens' hate and [[Patriotic Fervor]]
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s ''[[Warhammer
* A variation of this is done in [[Honor Harrington|War of Honor]]. A peculiarity in the Manticoran constitution allows elections to be delayed in wartime. So the government hems and haws about signing a peace treaty with Haven because it assumes the war is over and Haven will never resume hostilities but a nominal state of war will allow them to get advantage for themselves.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Averted in ''Warhammer40000''. Despite all the prerequisites, that is a number of horrible galactic threats of all colors: hordes of [[Ax Crazy]] barbarians, [[Legions of Hell]], omnicidal implacable robots, and all-consuming alien
** Notice the operative word there -- "...the three MORE reasonable powers..." Assuming the former troper was referring to the Imperium (which will not tolerate ''ANY'' xenos under ''ANY'' circumstances), the Eldar (who are willing to kill planetloads of non-Eldar just to save one Eldar in ten thousand years' time), and the Tau (who actually are fairly reasonable, in that they are willing to ally themselves with other non-hostile species, but are weak and tend towards being less-than-nice to, well, EVERYONE who isn't an Ethereal), then one can understand why no Galactic Alliance has been formed.
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
* ''[[Knights of the Old Republic|Knights of the Old Republic 2]]'' revealed that Revan's plan was to {{spoiler|attack the Republic with the Sith so that he could force galactic civilization to strengthen in preparation for the invasion of whatever he encountered out in the Unknown Regions}}.
** Not
*** The Old Republic and associated media make Revan's plans even more labyrinthine, in terms of motivations. {{spoiler|Initially, Revan and Malak are sent back to the Republic as a vanguard force for the exiled Sith Empire. At first, they do their job dutifully until they decide, as Sith often do, to rule for themselves. Thus, the initial assumptions that Revan's tactics were altruistically meant to prepare to Republic against the Sith Empire are actually a not quite correct. They were meant to properly prepare his own Empire against his master's. Malak tossing a [[Spanner in the Works]] ironically becomes the one thing which redeems Revan and, arguably, saves the Republic.}}
* ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation|Super Robot Wars: Original Generations]]'': This is Bian Zoldark's hidden motivation (and the game that inspired the story arc, ''[[Super Robot Wars 2]]''). He organizes the Divine Crusaders in a bid to conquer the world, figuring that either he will unite the world's powers against an alien
* ''[[Wild Arms 2]]'': {{spoiler|Irving Vold Valeria}} finances the terrorist group Odessa specifically so {{spoiler|1=he would have an excuse to make ARMs an international strike force to better combat a different threat later on. It should probably be noted that he was also willing [[Xanatos Gambit|to use Odessa for this if]] ''[[Xanatos Gambit|they]]'' [[Xanatos Gambit|won]].}}▼
He uses a double-layered version of this trope. He's able to create the Divine Crusaders in the first place thanks to a [[False-Flag Operation]] where one of his agents provoked the aliens during a secret [[Peace Conference]], then wipes out both forces. He then broadcasts a speech making it look like the aliens attacked government forces that were planning to surrender to them. So he makes the aliens look like the bad guys so he can unite his forces into being the bad guys to unite the world against the aliens that actually ''are'' the bad guys {{spoiler|and then the aliens at the peace conference turn out to be a different race conveniently disguised as the bad guys and oh god it's so confusing when it's compressed like this.}}
▲* ''[[Wild
* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' provided a very unintentional version of a Genghis Gambit. One particularly rich individual wanted to start a construction project in the Rupie Mountains and sent various hired hands like House Bowen to evict those clans who refused to step aside. One of the big attractions in the Rupie Mountains is the heated rivalry between the Bangaa Brotherhood and the Nu Mou Nobles. Guess what this individual, via House Bowen, wound up ending thanks to intervention by Clan Gully?
* ''[[Modern Warfare]] 2'': Played terrifyingly straight. {{spoiler|General Shepherd}} deliberately incites a shooting war with Russia in order to {{spoiler|instill patriotism, incite volunteers to the military, and unify America. If this sounds a little [[Anvilicious]], it comes across that way in the game, too. The death screens even warn about the dangers of excessive patriotism.}}
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* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'': Nale's Father did this unintentionally; he later created a more complicated plan involving a coalition of [[The Man Behind the Man|Men Behind Men]] working to create three empires instead of one, that are actually working together to stay unified.
** He does use it on a smaller scale as well as part of that unification plan, using the threat of the other conquering nations to pressure smaller states into capitulating into his empire for their own protection. What they ''don't'' know is that his companions control those other major nations and are doing the same thing to gradually absorb every independent state in the region.
* ''[[Bug
* Apparently the reason why {{spoiler|Tavor}} was made immortal in ''[[Looking for Group]]'', {{spoiler|so he could unite the enemies of Kethenecia [http://www.lfgcomic.com/page/483 into one imperialistic force] that would attempt to conquer the northern tribes who Cale could rally into rebuilding the ancient city}}
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== Real Life ==
* [[Trope Namer]]: [[Genghis Khan]], who went on conquests to unite the Mongols. Cracked.com described it as something akin to a massive work team-building exercise.
* This was [[Otto
* This is ''the'' standard operating procedure of fascism: The leaders instill in the people a strong nationalistic pride and militaristic culture, usually hearkening back to the old days when almost everyone fought each other, and then finds an enemy (external or not) and uses them to unite the people.
** This is a trope common to totalitarianisms in general, not just fascism - Communists use "international Capitalism/Reactionaries/Imperialists", right-wing dictatorships used "Communism/Socialism", religious dictatorships use "atheists/infidels/apostates" and the Nazis used "Judeo-Bolshevism/Jewish High Finance/English Plutocrats (who are also Jews)."
* Used during the first world war by T.E. Lawrence to unite Arabic tribes. The English army was trying to fight the Turkish Empire, but Lawrence's goal was to create a pan-Arabic nation. Though he did not succeed, he did set the history for the future independence of Arabs from Europe.
** Not quite. Lawrence didn't give a crap about the Arabs or their independence. He was in it for the Queen.
* George S. Patton is an inversion of the
* One theory is that the entire [[Arab-Israeli Conflict]] is, at least in part, the result of Egyptian President Gamal Nassar trying to do this to the entire Arab World. He hoped that by painting the newly formed State of Israel as a common enemy of all Arabs, he would be able to unite the different regional, political, and religious factions under one banner.
:One of the reasons for the original Arab invasion of Israel in 48' (which the Israelis refer to as the second stage of their war of independence) is that the various Arab leaders of the area feared their unpopular regimes would soon face coups, and this was their way of avoiding it. The problem is, the Israelis won, and all of the invading Arab leaders had their governments toppled anyway just a few short years later.
* Of course, Muhammad essentially executed the trope in an [[Older Than Feudalism]] example by converting the constantly-infighting Arab tribes to Islam, which divided the globe into a "House of Islam" and a "House of War"... as in, "we should go be in charge of that to make it House of Islam". They subsequently exploded out of the Middle East, across northern Africa, and even conquered modern-day Spain. They probably only slowed down because they ran out of people who could stay behind and be in charge.
* [[Romania
* [[Pakistan]], with its aid-dependent economy, failing civil infrastructure, religious persecution, and subnationalist movements in every province, generally uses a mild version of this trope. It focuses all the people's attention and hatred on Kashmir and India, respectively, always stopping just short of outright war.
* This was Hideyoshi Toyotomi's strategy in the 1590s to unite the feuding warlords of Japan: invade Korea and China and let them deal with their carnal fury. They didn't make it past Korea.
* Conspiracy theorists like to accuse national leaders in general of doing this.
* Part of the reasoning behind [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]]. Even if none of the 40 guys in any given platoon can agree on anything else, they can all rally behind the idea that the bastard sergeant needs to die a slow, painful and embarrassing death...
* In many ways the "Crusades" were just a recruiting slogan that got attitude problems as Christians and Muslims fought each other before and after the official dates for the Crusades, quite commonly because they were Christians and Muslims (politics and ethnic prejudice and basically any other reason to fight also factored in, making for some weird alliances across the frontiers), and in fact there is really no distinct point where you can say that a war between Christians and Muslims is a Crusade or a Jihad other then someone using the word. Be that as it may, when the Crusades and their successors did become fashionable one of the most important reasons was to clear Europe of unruly knights and dump them in the Middle East where they could be someone else's problem.
* A common downplaying is a bloodless (or at least without intentional bloodshed) [[Genghis Gambit]]. This is the common habit of engaging in ostentatious PR projects: temples, palaces, monuments, even NASA arguably. Part of the reason is to draw attention to the ruler's [[Glory Seeker|grandeur]]. But another part is to provide a goal to work toward. In this case "the other" can be said to be nature rather than humans.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:The Plan]]
[[Category:Genghis Gambit]]▼
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
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