History Main / DiversionaryForeignPolicy

* In ''La Comisión'', Music/LesLuthiers portray two politicians from a fictional country, and a composer, the latter in charge to modify their national anthem. One of the changes due to be included in the new anthem references how, in order to calm the discontent of their people, the politicians decide to invent a war with Norway.

* In ''La Comisión'', Argentinian comedy band ''Music/LesLuthiers'' portray two politicians and a composer, the latter in charge to modify the anthem of a fictional country. One of the changes due to be included in the new anthem references how, in order to calm the discontent of their people, the politicians decide to invent a war with Norway.

Of course, this can backfire if your internal opposition is not suppressed, in which case they can use the training they received from the war to become an active threat to you. Or maybe the country you invaded manages to last longer than expanded or, worse still, defeat you outright. In that case, expect resentment to skyrocket.

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Tropes: PoliticsTropes, MilitaryAndWarfareTropes, NoRealLife.TooControversial

TruthInTelevision - this is known as the Rally Around The Flag Effect, where people tend to support a failing government if there is an ongoing war or external crisis. That being said, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease - the connotations of this trope are too negative.

[[folder:Film - Live Action]]

* ''Literature/APracticalGuideToEvil'': This is revealed to be the reason the Dread Empire of Praes constantly goes to war with everyone else after being United under an EvilOverlord - [[spoiler:the land of Praes is practically impossible to grow substantial amounts of food on, which leads to food shortages once the population rises high enough. The narrative PowersThatBe ensure any Dread Emperor/Empress that tries to implement reforms to limit population growth dies before they can do so, meaning that the repeated invasions are the only way to curb things]].

* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': This is usually a part of why the Imperium constantly fights everyone else in the setting - [[CrapsackWorld while just about everyone in the setting is some flavor of evil and would like to at least subjugate mankind]], the constant fighting by also allows the Imperium to justify all the measures it uses to suppress internal discontent. This can and does backfire frequently, though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}}'': The reason the Taiidan Empire scorches Kharak is revealed to be this - knowing that the Higarans have only just rediscovered space travel, the empire tries to wipe them out on the grounds of breaking an ancient treaty forbidding them from developing space travel so that they can quell growing unrest in the empire. [[NiceJobFixingItVillain Not only did they fail to get all of the Higarans, many Taiidans realized the Higarans had forgotten the treaty existed and promptly rebelled against the empire]].

Diversionary Foreign Policy refers to the concept of deliberately going to war with another country with the intent of quelling internal discontent. The idea behind this is that with a common external enemy, all the disparate factions in a nation will unite, at least for the moment. Ideally, any elements that oppose the regime in power will either be silenced by their country, secretly eliminated under the guise of suppressing enemy sympathizers, or wiped out on the front lines.

TruthInTelevision - this is known as the Rally Around The Flag Effect, where people tend to support a failing government if there is an ongoing war or external crissis. That being said, Administrivia/NoRealLifeExamplesPlease - the connotations of this trope are too negative.

* ''Film/WagTheDog'': In a far more elbaorate example than usual, a shadowy spin doctor leads the creation of a phony war in Albania to divert attention away from the sexual indiscretions of the President of the United States (he was caught getting fresh with Girl Scouts in the middle of re-election). The false war is a success and the President is re-elected but the Hollywood producer the spin doctor hired to handle the production ends up [[spoiler:needing to be assassinated to keep him quiet when he gets upset he will have to keep his involvement a secret]] and also to make things worse [[spoiler:[[GoneHorriblyRight there has been a rise in Albanian-motivated terrorism]].]]

* ''Literature/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'': Two kings ago, the Kingdom of Elfrieden conquered half the territory of its neighbor Amidonia. Amidonia's royal family responded by going full-on irredentist: they made their national policy for the next several decades getting that land back, and used their PropagandaMachine to blame all the resulting economic problems on Elfrieden. [[spoiler:However, when they finally do invade in volume 2, they wind up on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle, and King Souma deliberately takes a light touch while occupying them to show that the irredentism wasn't necessary, removing Julius Amidonia's ability to use this excuse in future.]]

* ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'': Attacking another realm won't help a liege's internal problems; in fact it might even make them worse due to opinion penalties from raising your vassals' levies. However, ''getting invaded'' gives the defending liege a significant opinion boost from their vassals for the duration of the conflict.

Diversionary Foreign Policy refers to the concept of deliberately going to war with another country with the intent of quelling internal discontent. The idea behind this is that with a common external enemy, all the disparate factions in a nation will unite, at least for the moment. Ideally, any elements that oppose the regime in power will either be silenced by their country, secretly eleminated under the guise of suppressing enemy sympathizers, or wiped out on the front lines.

* ''VideoGame/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'': In the episode "Abe Lincoln Must Die", Sam and the newly elected President Max need to get into the White House war room to use the country?s ballistic missiles to take down a rampaging statue of Abe Lincoln. The problem is, they can?t access the War room unless there?s an actual war. So they trigger a civil war between the states of North, South, and West Dakota to get in? and also inadvertently cue a musical number by the secret service extolling the virtues of war (strengthening the economy and encouraging a second term for the incumbent). Of course, all Sam and Max want is to launch some nukes at a statue?

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series backstory, Emperor Uriel Septim V inherited an empire wracked by internal strife, floundering domestic support, and plagued by debt. He opted to Invoke this trope by launching a series of invasions outside of the continent of Tamriel including numerous island nations to the east and eventually invading [[{{Wutai}} Akavir]] itself. This plan worked and Uriel V was considered a [[TheConqueror conquering]] warrior-emperor second only to [[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber Septim]] himself... at least ''initially''. Bogged down in Akavir by [[WeatherManipulation supernatural bad weather]], his mages reporting as being "[[AntiMagic abnorally weak]]" while there, and mounted [[SnakePeople Tsaesci]] raiders delivering a DeathByAThousandCuts, he opted to withdraw after one year. Unfortunately, while covering the retreat of his army, the Tsaesci attacked in force and he was [[UncertainDoom reportedly killed in a hail of arrows]].

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series backstory, Emperor Uriel Septim V inherited an empire wracked by internal strife, floundering domestic support, and plagued by debt. He opted to Invoke this trope by launching a series of invasions outside of the continent of Tamriel including numerous island nations to the east and eventually invading [[{{Wutai}} Akavir]] itself. This plan worked and Uriel V was considered a [[TheConquerer conquering]] warrior-emperor second only to [[FounderOfTheKingdom Tiber Septim]] himself... at least ''initially''. Bogged down in Akavir by [[WeatherManipulation supernatural bad weather]], his mages reporting as being "[[AntiMagic abnorally weak]]" while there, and mounted [[SnakePeople Tsaesci]] raiders delivering a DeathByAThousandCuts, he opted to withdraw after one year. Unfortunately, while covering the retreat of his army, the Tsaesci attacked in force and he was [[UncertainDoom reportedly killed in a hail of arrows]].