Interservice Rivalry: Difference between revisions

* Divisions of Mithril in ''[[Full Metal Panic]]''. Intelligence and operatives in particular. That was probably the main reason why Sousuke was reluctant to leave Kaname protected by Wraith (who was from Intelligence).

** In "The Second Raid" Melissa Mao tells the story of how she escaped from an [[Arranged Marriage]] by joining the U.S. Marine Corps, marching into the recruitment office [[Runaway Bride|still wearing her wedding dress]]. The recruiters were reluctant to sign her up until Mao revealed that her father was in the Air Force, at which point they welcomed her into the Corps purely to annoy him.

* The various geographical units of the Amestris military in the ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' manga evidence this. Soldiers from the Northern (Briggs), Central, and East forces (the ones shown so far) never lack for snide things to say about every unit aside from theirs.

** In the first anime, Ishbal flashbacks show some animosity towards the State Alchemists when they arrived, as some among the regular soldiers felt they'd been sent to die for nothing when the Fuhrer could have just called in these guys from the beginning and ended the campaign ''seven years'' sooner.

* 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.

'''Miles''': Principle, Sir? What Principle! It's ''waste disposal!'' }}

* The Cardinal's men vs. the Musketeers in ''[[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]]''.

* In the Aiel War in the backstory of the ''[[Wheel of Time]]'' series, this is one of the many reasons the "Grand Alliance" has trouble standing up to the Aiel invasion, though eventually they pull things together and arrange a rotation of generals. Well, what do you expect when the [[Witch Species|Aes Sedai]] and the [[Burn the Witch|Children]] [[Knight Templar|of the Light]] are fighting on the same side?

* 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.

* A factor in ''19'' by Roger Hall: the title organization has infiltrated most if not all U.S. intelligence services, doing a better job of counterespionage than the official agencies can, and therefore they want to find it and shut it down, even though they realize it's on their side -- ''if'' it exists at all, which they're not 100% sure of (it does). Also, at one point someone facetiously suggests that 19 is made up of super-intelligent extraterrestrials, and a CIA type comments that would be a good thing: "even the FBI could catch them if they glowed in the dark."

*** Strangely enough, the Navy SeaBees have a little-known rivalry with the Marines dating back to [[World War II]]. When the SeaBees were founded, they were mostly drawn from civilians with prior experience in construction, which skewed their ranks to a much higher average age than other draftees, to say nothing of the fact that, as older men with vital skills, the initial SeaBees were mostly volunteers as they'd have been far back in the drafting order. When they first conducted operations with the Marines, the Marines told them that they'd take care of them, to which the SeaBees replied no, ''they'' would take care of ''them''. The humor in the idea of a group of sailors being [[Papa Wolf|Papa Wolves]] to the USMC should be obvious.

** From the Marines' Hymn:

The United States Marines.'' }}

* US military rivalry also extends to fighting over equipment and budgets like it was politics. During the cold war, new air fighters were needed by both the air force and the navy. The F-16 and F-18 were both front runners, and the F-16 was expected to win. But once the air force selected the superior F-16s, the navy took the good-but-could-be-better F-18s out of spite. Navy topguns still fly F-16s.

** One joke has a newly-elected politician taking his seat in parliament for the first time, looking across at the other party. "There they are," he says to his older colleague, "The enemy." His older colleague replies, "No, that's the opposition. The enemy are seated all around you."

*** This is related to the joke about politicians and bureaucrats popularized by ''[[Yes Minister]]'':

* In pre-revolutionary Iran, as usual, the Imperial Army, Navy, and Air Force had rivalries with each other. All didn't like the [[Secret Police|SAVAK]].

** 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 .