Interservice Rivalry: Difference between revisions

[[File:army-navy-1946-crockett1_5128.jpg|frame|More than just a [[Fandom Rivalry|football game]].]]

When it doesn't, one of the reasons usually is [[Interservice Rivalry]], where at least two branches of the government don't work well together, sometimes openly opposing and working against each other. Usually if the leaders of said branches know each other, they can't let go of their past feelings and it intensifies the rivalry. Often in military fiction (and in real life as well), some amount of Interservice Rivalry will be encouraged by the higher-ups, to promote a competitive spirit but sometimes it can get out of hand.

Cases of [[Interservice Rivalry]] can cause [[Jurisdiction Friction]] and [[Divided We Fall]]. Compare [[Right Hand Versus Left Hand]]. There is also [[Truth in Television]] to this.

* Some divisions of the Gotei 13 in [[Bleach]] have this, especially the 4th and 11th divisions; the former views the latter as a gang of violent thugs and the latter views the former as weak and useless in battle. When Ichigo and Ganju take Hanataro of the 4th Division hostage, the 11th Division [[Mook|Mooks]] pursuing them laugh it off.

* In ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', there is a slight [[Interservice Rivalry]] within the RDA post at Pandora. The scientists of the Avatar Program wish to have a peaceful negotiation with the Omaticaya, but the security force, led by Quaritch, wants to use lethal force against them.

* In the ''[[Temeraire]]'' series, the Aerial Corps (made up of [[Dragon Rider|Dragon Riders]]) is looked down on by the other branches of the armed forces. Conversely, Laurence initially faces a lot of hostility in the Aerial Corps because he started out in the Navy.

* In ''[[Vorkosigan Saga|The Vor Game]]'' by [[Lois McMaster Bujold]], one villain talks about how he regrets the ''lack'' of interservice rivalry in the military he's serving in--he feels it gave the top brass more leverage when dealing with mutineers.

* In William King's ''[[Warhammer 40000]]'' [[Space Wolf]] novel ''Grey Hunters'', the Wolf Lord Berek arrived to back up his subordinate in a conflict between the Space Wolves and the Inquisition explicitly because the Space Wolves do not give up what they have won -- even prisoners.

* Common in the [[Star Trek Novel Verse]]. In the Klingon Empire, the Klingon Defense Force and Imperial Intelligence hold each other in considerable distaste. In particular, there's a subplot in [[Star Trek: Klingon Empire]] involving I.I's displeasure with Captain Klag, and his [[Honor Before Reason]] tactics. Also, in the [[Star Trek: The Lost Era]] novel ''The Art of the Impossible'', Captain Qaolin of the Defence Force and his Imperial Intelligence liasion ''really'' don't like each other - again, because the berserker battle-hungry tendencies of the warriors clash with I.I's "dishonourable" sneakiness and caution. The Klingons aren't the only ones; the Romulan military takes its codes of honour, and the passionate brotherhood between warriors, very seriously. The cool, passionless underhanded tactics of the Tal Shiar intelligence agency therefore offend them, as does their tendency to question a warrior's loyalty. The Tal Shiar, for their part, view the military leadership as inbred, unimaginative fools. Then there's Cardassia, where [[Interservice Rivalry]] is endemic, particularly between the Central Command and the Obsidian Order. In the first [[Terok Nor]] novel, Skrain Dukat sums up Central Command's angle on the Order:

* Endemic in [[The Laundry Series]] by [[Charles Stross]]. Many members of an above-top-secret agency that combats [[Eldritch Abomination|EldritchAbominations]] consider its archenemy to be ... Human Resources. Political maneuvering among various managers -- and the protagonist always has two -- feeds the conflict as much or more than brain-eating horrors from other universes.

** And with perhaps ''slightly'' less intensity whenever Army or Navy plays Air Force; the Air Force simply hasn't been around as long, so the rivalry hasn't truly had a chance to really ''fester'', you know? Even though the Air Force Academy has won [[wikipedia:Commander-in-Chief%27s Trophy|the Commander-in-Chief's Trophy]] more often than either of its opponents, The Army-Navy Game is still the one taken the ''most'' seriously. So seriously, in fact, that despite the fact that neither Army nor Navy have been truly relevant to the college football championship scene in years, their game is still considered one of the premier rivalry games in the nation.

* The London Metropolitan police and City of London police in the [[Jack the Ripper]] case. Rather than share information, each faction tried to obstruct the other--this is sometimes argued to have been a major reason why the killer was never caught.

** The U.S. introduced [[wikipedia:General of the Army %28United States%29#World War II era|the five-star rank]] because of this (a U.S. four-star general would be outranked by a British Field Marshal.)

*** Surface sailors in general do not have any specific negative association, but Surface Warfare Officers in particular are often viewed as overbearing [[Jerkass|Jerkasses]] with [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]]. Surface ''ships'' are often referred to by submariners simply as "targets" (the unspoken implication being that the sailors of those ships are mostly good for [[Cannon Fodder]]). "Brown-Shoes" (Navy aviators and their support staff) do, however, refer to surface officers and crew as being in the "transport" or "cargo" business, seeing their only role as getting the all-important planes where they're going.

** After the Revolution, the [[State Sec|Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps]] showed up. The regular military has somewhat put aside its differences to hate on the IRGC, as although it started as a revolutionary militia, it now has its own land, naval, and air forces, as well as complete control of the Iranian long-range missile force (and thus Iran's nuclear weapons if/when it gets them), and commands the ''Basij''--the regime's [[Culture Police|morality]] and [[Secret Police|political police]] force--as well .

** The Carabinieri (military police and gendarmerie) are despised by the rest of the armed forces, with a contempt second only to the one reserved for the military cooks ([[Cordon Bleugh Chef|Cordon Bleugh Chefs]] by Italian standards).