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Genghis Gambit (view source)

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== 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.
* The ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' manga ''Battlefield of Pacifists'' uses a similar idea. An [[Anti-Villain]] former OZ soldier wants to inspire deep space exploration by taking a lost [[Mecha -Mooks|Mobile Doll]] factory and placing it at Mars, suggesting that a force that powerful would force humanity to put aside their differences and unite to deal with the common threat. {{spoiler|He gets killed by a [[Double Agent]], but his actions inspire Wu Fei to become the threat that makes humanity grow, foreshadowing his actions in ''Endless Waltz''.}}
* The centuries-spanning [[Gambit Roulette]] of Aeolia Schenberg from ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam 00]]'' involved uniting the various factions of the world against Celestial Being.
 
 
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* ''[[Angels and Demons]]'': The Illuminati are used as the enemy of the Catholic Church.
* ''[[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 enemy -- an Ankh-Morpork ''without'' Vetinari. [[Vetinari Job Security|You don't have to be the BEST patrician to succeed, just slightly better than the alternative.]]
* [[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]] -- to unify them, and control them.
* In [[Ben Counter]]'s ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' [[Grey Knights (Literature)|Grey Knights]] novel ''The Hammer of Daemons'', Alaric sets up a [[False-Flag Operation]] to convince people that their overlord had set up the [[Gladiator Revolt]] as part of this and unite them for the crusade. Alaric's operation works.
 
 
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* In ''[[The Outer Limits]]'' TOS episode "The Architects of Fear", a group of scientists turns a man into a fake alien and has him "invade" the Earth in an attempt to scare the nations of the world into cooperation.
* On a more minor scale, Dr Kelso from ''[[Scrubs]]'' used this to keep his staff united, by doing horrible things so that they would focus their anger on him rather than each other.
* ''[[Jeeves and Wooster (TV series)|Jeeves and Wooster]]'': Jeeves uses this to end the quarrels between Wooster's friends. He tricks Wooster into ringing the alarm bell, thus bringing everyone outside into the pouring rain, where they find out that the door is locked from the outside and they don't have the key. When asked why Wooster rang the alarm bell, he can't give a straight answer, and Jeeves makes him go to somebody else's house to find the key. This gives everybody else the opportunity to unite in anger against him, after which Jeeves "discovers" that he had the key in his pocket all along. When Wooster finally comes back, everybody else just laughs at him for having biked a mile in the pouring rain for absolutely nothing, and forgets that they were angry at him.
* In the ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'' episode [[Groundhog Day Loop|"Been There, Done That"]], Joxer decides to invoke this during one loop. He gets stuck full of pointy things for his trouble and ends up taking Xena and Gabrielle with him.
* In the final episode of [[Generation Kill]], [[Drill Sergeant Nasty|Sergeant Major Sixta]] reveals that he's been doing this to the battalion the entire time with ridiculous enforcement of the grooming standard to give the Marines an outlet for their stress.
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== Theatre ==
* ''[[Wicked (Theatretheatre)|Wicked]]'': {{spoiler|The Wizard}} explains to Elphaba that this is what he was doing by making everyone believe the Animals are evil. This is a metaphor for [[Adolf Hitler]].
 
 
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* ''[[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 quite -- Revan's plan was actually to {{spoiler|conquer the Republic by attacking key points, while leaving the infrastructure intact and recruiting his (or her) strongest enemies. Thus, a galaxy united under Revan's rule would be more than equipped to turn to face the external threat. Malak, of course, royally screwed the pooch by spoiling the plan and engaging in much more random destruction.}}
*** 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 Thethe 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 threat -- or the world's powers will unite against ''him'', either way being better prepared for the invasion to come.<br /><br />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 Arms 2 (Video Game)|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]].}}
* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics a 2]]'' 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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{{quote| '''Reporter:''' So... nations can attack each other with no risk of nuclear annihilation? <br />
'''Well-Meaning Failure Man:''' Uh... }}
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' invoked this trope [http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-05-04 here.]
** Except that it's inverted because the threat was totally outside Petey's control. In fact, this is more a case of [[Enemy Mine]] than this trope.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|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 (Webcomicwebcomic)|Bug]]'' argues that [http://www.bugcomic.com/comics/peacemaker/ this is what the UN should be doing].
* Apparently the reason why {{spoiler|Tavor}} was made immortal in ''[[Looking for Group (Webcomic)|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}}
 
== Western Animation ==
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** 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 trope -- he didn't care if anyone was united by anything, he just [[Blood Knight|really fucking loved fighting.]] It was just good luck he was a good leader as well.
* 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. Unfourtnately for Nassar, the plan failed, and the situation has since taken on a life of its own.<br /><br />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|Romanian]] ruler [[wikipedia:Michael the Brave|Mihai Viteazul]] did this as a necessity, as actual '''enemies''' (yes, plural) were tearing the country apart in regions. With the rest of them being somewhat subjugated to foreign rulers, he united them ''by force'' and succeed, but only for a brief time. Centuries later, Ioan Cuza would do it in a more peaceful and in-accord way, which lasted to this day.
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