Gunboat Diplomacy: Difference between revisions

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* The final book in [[Harry Turtledove]]'s ''[[Worldwar]]'' series features two spaceships. The first is ''Admiral Peary'' which is close to the conventional ships The Race uses and comes to negotiate on fair terms. The second is the ''Commodore Perry''. Its purpose is not to negotiate on fair terms...

** The ''Admiral Peary'' is armed with nukes, as a safeguard against the lizards doing anything bad to Earth in their absense. If that isn't gunboat diplomacy, I don't know what is. The ''Commodore Perry'' is an FTL-capable ship that took only 5 weeks to get to Tau Ceti. The mere fact that is was able to do that freaked out the Race more than the weapons it carried. Even if they managed to destroy the ship, the humans would just send another that could attack as soon as it arrived in orbit in a matter of weeks, as opposed to decades.

* In the [[Vorkosigan Saga]], Aral Vorkosigan pulls a clever reversal of this; he draws up a list of a neighbouring polity's top five requested diplomatic concessions and suggests it as an agenda for a summit. The diplomacy, in this case, is purely so that he can get his gunboat closer to where he suspects the action will take place. He's right, and it results in one hell of a [[Gunship Rescue]] moment.

* Done by numerous parties in the [[Honorverse]]. In Silesia both the Manticoreans and the Andermani are constantly doing this. You would feel sorry for the locals except that they are a [[Wretched Hive|lawless bunch]] ruled by human traffickers and they kind of deserve what they get.

* In [[Star Trek: Articles of the Federation]], United Federation of Planets President Bacco resorts to this when overseeing negotiations between the Carreon and the Deltans. The Deltans require a new water reclamation system for their planet, and the Carreon have the design they need. Because of an old feud, however, the Carreon refuse to negotiate properly. Bacco ends up using the implied threat of Federation military strength to stop the Carreon messing the Deltans around. As she tells the Carreon Ambassador, diplomacy is the means by which conflict is avoided. If Carrea won't negotiate in good faith, the only remaining option is war- and she makes it clear Carrea wouldn't stand a chance.

* Retaking the Lone Islands with one ship in [[Voyage of the Dawn Treader]].

* ''[[The War of the Worlds]]'' is usually read as an allegory for the British Empire's gunboat diplomacy in the late nineteenth century.

* ''[[The War of the Worlds (novel)|The War of the Worlds]]'' is usually read as an allegory for the British Empire's gunboat diplomacy in the late nineteenth century.

* This is standard policy for the [[The Federation|Earth Federation]] when dealing with space-faring aliens in Mikhail Akhmanov's ''[[Arrivals From the Dark|Trevelyan's Mission]]'' series. This is justified, as humanity's first (and many subsequent) encounters with aliens haven't exactly been on friendly terms. As such, all ambassadors are ferried by top-of-the-line cruisers. Then again, given that this 'verse has instant [[Casual Interstellar Travel]], it's not that big a deal. The only time they did not do that is when a race of [[Technical Pacifist]]s (who can somehow accurately predict possible futures using an advanced form of intuition) requested that no warships be present at negotiations.

* In ''[[Discworld/Jingo|Jingo]]'' Vetinari shoots down the suggestion that Ankh-Morpork sent a warship to Klatch for this purpose on the grounds that, firstly, that sort of thing is not done in modern diplomacy and, secondly, Ankh-Morpork doesn't ''have'' any warships.

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** In Starfleet's defence, one of the reasons why it happens so often is that the first contact goes violent often enough that you have to back it up with firepower simply to be safe—and as warp travel is generally too slow to get reinforcements there in reasonable time, that means the ships ''making'' first contact has to have that firepower. End result: the Federation keeps making initial agreements with newly discovered species while a starship capable of wiping out a civilization hangs around nearby.

* In [[The Sopranos]], a real estate agent refuses to do business with Tony, so he has some of his men park a boat next to the agents beach house and play loud music.

* Done by Delenn in ''[[Babylon 5]]'', ''Severed Dreams''. Widely considered a CMOA.

** Earlier in the season, happens ''all over the place'' in ''A Voice In The Wilderness'', with over a half-dozen races (including Earth and a previously-unknown race) all pulling this at once when it is discovered that there is some very powerful, very advanced technology buried beneath the planet that the station orbits. {{spoiler|After a brief, inconclusive battle, ''the planet itself'', now acting through its new caretaker, '''[[Large Ham|DRALL]]''' informs all involved parties that ''none'' of them can have the planet, and that any who approach without permission will be destroyed.}}

** And [[Subverted]] in ''Rumors, Bargains, and Lies'', when Sheridan orders the Rangers to attack and destroy {{spoiler|some random asteroids. The League races know that the [[Cool Starship|White Stars]] have far superior sensors to anything they have, and thus assume that they were fighting an invisible enemy. Sheridan does nothing to convince them otherwise, and welcomes them into a new military alliance.}}

** A common accusation is the invitation for Earth to join the Interstellar Alliance happened during the end of the rebellion, and included dozens of advance warships doing a flyover of the capital.

* The whole reason of the High Guard having such fancy and overly [[Cool Starship|powerful warships]] designed by {{spoiler|Now extinct.}} [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens|Vedrans]] was so the High Guard could flaunt their unimaginable destructive potential and deter beligerant species from hostilities during negotiations. Usually these were discussions that involved joining the [[The Federation|Commonwealth]] either by free will or with the guns of a mile long warship that looks like an Italian-sportscar-in-space trained on them. The ''XMC'' class or ''Glorious Heritage''-class heavy cruisers like the ''[[Andromeda]] Ascendant'' were built for exactly this purpose. They were the diplomatic flagships of the Commonwealth that usually operated without a task force for extended periods of time. The stupid amounts of firepower and the ability to [[Earthshattering Kaboom|crack an M-class planet like an egg]] in only a few minutes and a [[Red Shirt|legion of lancers]] gave the High Guard captain a pretty good bargaining position. ''XMC'' heavy cruisers were also used for long range exploration because of this capability.

** This didn't do much good against the Pyrians, whose ships were at least a match for the ''Glorious Heritage'' class. Also, unlike the Commonwealth, the Pyrians never went anywhere.

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* The two Moroccan Crises of 1905 and 1911. Both also illustrate the major problem with the gunboat approach; you have to have the biggest stick around to pull it off, or you'll be slapped down by those who ''do''.

* American exercises off Libya in the 1980s, especially the Gulf of Sidra incidents.

** [[Older Than They Think]] once you find on a map where the Barbary States were located. The [[Semper Fi|Marine Corps]] hymn doesn't mention the Shores of Tripoli because of anything they did in the ''20th'' century.

** The Barbary Coast states were known as pirates and slave takers until visited in turn by the Americans, the British, and the French at the beginning of the nineteenth century. These three each persuaded them to turn to more gentle ways of life by the use of [[Semper Fi|exceedingly]] [[Wooden Ships and Iron Men|strong]] [[Legion of Lost Souls|persuasions]].

* The [[Taiwan|Taiwan Strait]] Crisis of [[The Nineties|1995-6]] was another instance, although some argue that the US [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|overdid it]]—almost fatally, [[Nuke'Em|if you catch my drift]]—when [[Bill Clinton]] ordered ''two'' Carrier Battle Groups instead of just one.

** The crisis also demonstrated the potential for gunboat diplomacy to backfire. The crisis was precipitated by the Chinese military conducting missile tests less than 40 miles from ROC-controlled territory as well as a mobilization of Chinese troops in Fujian province (the province closest to Taiwan) and several live-fire exercises. The actions were intended to scare the Taiwanese populace into not re-electing then-President Lee Teng-hui, who was seen by China as being pro-independence - the crisis actually ''boosted'' Lee's popularity in the 1996 election and gave him an outright majority in the polls as opposed to a mere plurality. China has since learned its lesson and hasn't tried anything so radical in subsequent Taiwanese elections.

* Perhaps most famously, the diplomatic mission of Commodore Matthew C. Perry ([[Friends|not that one]]) to the Empire of Japan.

** Subverted by his Russian equivalent, Admiral Yevfimy Putyatin who managed to open Japan for Russia '''after''' a tsunami destroyed his fleet.

** This was only the most famous of several rounds of this trope with Japan; Britain, after an English businessman was murdered for refusing to dismount and pay his respects to a passing noble, sent a squadron to bombard the towns of Kagoshima and Shimonoseki. Part of why Commodore Perry's tactics worked was because a growing faction in the Shogunate were going "Guys, we have ''got'' to get some of that for ourselves!"

** The final Japanese surrender in [[World War Two]] was signed on ''USS Missouri'', a battleship. Perry's US flag was brought along for the occasion as MacArthur was descended from Perry.

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* The order of the day between North and South Korea: if you don't like how things are going in the diplomatic table, you arrange a "joint military exercise (with live rounds!)" near your neighbor's land or naval border. Sometimes the "training bullets" fly outside the exercise zone, too.

* Both China and America have been sending their [[Sarcasm Mode|magnificent naval fleets]] to the South China Sea. The PRC, to defend the undersea resources they claim to be rightfully theirs;<ref>this isdespite being WAY out of what it should be in international law, which put a country's "EEZ" to 200 miles out from their coastline. The South China Sea dosn't actually align with China's Coastline, and much is beyond what would be their EEZ even if it was.</ref> America, to curb China's claim by protecting the interests of their South-East Asian allies, who under international law have a legal claim to it.

* Several Middle Eastern countries were suspected by the British secret service of being more cozy then they should with Germany during World War II. The result tended to be a large number of British soldiers showing up on their doorstep in a manner that Disraeli would approve no end.

**Vichy got a lot of this from ''both'' sides

**Germany several times did this to recalcitrant clients who wanted to defect or weren't all that enthusiastic about the whole thing in the first place. Usually this ended in a German occupation. One notable exception was Finland which turned out to be as good at killing Germans as Russians.

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[[Category:Military and Warfare Tropes]]

[[Category:Politics Tropes]]

[[Category:~~Gunboat Diplomacy~~]]

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