History Main / EnforcedColdWar

* A likely interpretation of the situation in the ''Literature/LandOfOz.'' The King and Queen of Oz died (or disappeared) suddenly, with only an infant heir. The [[{{Archmage}} four most powerful magic users]] in the land looking to start trouble (the Witches of North and South allied against the Witches of East and West). then in comes Oscar Diggs, a third-rate con artist and MagnificentBastard, who uses a combination of mistaken identity, carnival tricks, stage magic, and technological tricks to trick the four Witches into thinking he's more powerful than they are! He sets himself up as GodEmperor in the Emerald City, makes the infant heir vanish ([[MadeASlave by sending her into slavery]], [[GenderBender bespelled as the wrong gender]]), and things more or less stabilize...[[SpannerIntheWorks until some girl from Kansas shows up]], squishes the East Witch flat on accident, and throws the whole balance off.

* [[http://www.mst3kinfo.com/history/page9.html The Great Joel vs Mike Flamewar]] that broke out in ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000 MST3K]]'' fandom when the latter took over hosting duties for the former in 1994 pitted [=MSTie=] against [=MSTie=] and very nearly wiped out all life as we know it. These days on ''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheatre3000 MST3K]]'' message boards, it's generally a topic discussed in only the most coldly logical, unemotional terms lest ancient hatreds come to the fore. Flaming people over it is swiftly and brutally punished by moderators.

* In the 1970s ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Classic}}'', the fleet encounters a planet named Terra, occupied by two factions on the brink of nuclear war with one another. In this instance, the Galactica plays the role of the sufficiently advanced being, shooting down both factions' missiles as they attempt to launch and intimidating them into pursuing peaceful negotiation.

* ''LightNovel/ACertainMagicalIndex'': many of the individual novel plots revolve around some radical person or group trying to upset the balance of power between Magic and Science, often in a rather public manner. This results in both sides dispatching agents to stop them, since while Academy City and the various Churches around the world are at odds with one another, they do not want the conflict to spill over into the public eye. In fact, the one time the conflict actually does get big enough that the public notices it, WorldWarThree is the result. It isn't entirely clear how the Magic side got TheMasquerade going again after ''that'' debacle.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld'}}' has a very comedic example in the FeudingFamilies Venturi and Selachii. They are forbidden by law to talk about any topics on whch they can disagree, leading to them having conversations consisting entirely of CaptainObvious statements like "I see we are both standing."

* ''Literature/Discworld'' has a very comedic example in the FeudingFamilies Venturi and Selachii. They are forbidden by law to talk about any topics on whch they can disagree, leading to them having conversations consisting entirely of CaptainObvious statements like "I see we are both standing."

* ''Manga/OnePiece'': [[spoiler: The Whitebeard War ends this way, as Shanks intervenes and threatens to take on any side if they don't stop the senseless violence. In this case, this is likely a short-term solution, as Shanks and his crew are about equal in power to the other factions. The only reason Shanks' threat held weight is because all the factions (Luffy's allies, The Whitebeard Pirates, the Blackbeard Pirates, and the World Government) were too weakened from the fighting up till that point.]] On a wider scale, the men in charge of the World Government spend most of their screen time worrying about the balance of power between the Marines, the Shichibukai, and the Yonkou.

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* ''Manga/OnePiece'': [[spoiler: The Whitebeard War ends this way, as Shanks intervenes and threatens to take on any side if they don't stop the senseless violence. In this case, this is likely a short-term solution, as Shanks and his crew are about equal in power to the other factions. The only reason Shanks' threat held weight is because all the factions (Luffy's allies, The Whitebeard Pirates, the Blackbeard Pirates, and the World Government) were too weakened from the fighting up till that point.]] On a wider scale, the men in charge of the World Government spend most of their screen time worrying about the balance of power between the Marines, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Four Emperors.

This can have the effect of forcing two groups of enemies into regular contact with each other, while preventing the fight from escalating, driving the plot into other forms of conflict (e.g., school contests, supporting opposing factions of minor groups, etc.) and not coincidentally mimicking the sort of uneasy peace that typified the ColdWar between the US and the USSR during the late 20th century (where the threat of total nuclear annihilation was the higher power keeping the peace between the US and Russia).

* In ''ToLoveRu'', Rito is forced to go to school with Yami, the infamous alien assassin known throughout the galaxy who wants to kill Rito, but doesn't because she's best friends with his sister. She will however try if he does anything ecchi towards her [[AccidentalPervert which has Rito narrowly escaping death on a daily basis]]
* In ''LastExile'', the countries of Anatoray and Disith are engaged in a long and bloody war under the supervision of the mysterious Guild, which directs the official battles which take place in the air between the country's respective air forces. The enforcement comes into play when one side gains too much of an advantage and is stopped forcefully by the forces of the Guild, in order to maintain the [[StatusQuoIsGod status quo]].

* ''OnePiece'': [[spoiler: The Whitebeard War ends this way, as Shanks intervenes and threatens to take on any side if they don't stop the senseless violence. In this case, this is likely a short-term solution, as Shanks and his crew are about equal in power to the other factions. The only reason Shanks' threat held weight is because all the factions (Luffy's allies, The Whitebeard Pirates, the Blackbeard Pirates, and the World Government) were too weakened from the fighting up till that point.]]
** On a wider scale, the men in charge of the World Government spend most of their screen time worrying about the balance of power between the Marines, the Seven Warlords of the Sea, and the Four Emperors.
* ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'' utilized a very literal example of this trope. TheThe two waring [[HumongousMecha mecha]] factions in the show only fought at pre-scheduled places and times, and the pilots were allowed to [[GracefulLoser tap out]] when it looked like were going to lose. As in the [[TruthInTelevision real life]] Cold War, the point of this was to keep the world from being [[StoryboardingTheApocalypse wrecked]] by the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by both sides.

* The planets Apokalips and New Genesis in TheDCU. The explanation was given in ''New Gods'' #7 in the story "The Pact", which resulted in the characters of Orion and Mister Miracle.

* [[http://www.mst3kinfo.com/history/page9.html The Great Joel vs Mike Flamewar]] that broke out in MST3K fandom when the latter took over hosting duties for the former in 1994 pitted [=MSTie=] against [=MSTie=] and very nearly wiped out all life as we know it. These days on MST3K message boards, it's generally a topic discussed in only the most coldly logical, unemotional terms lest ancient hatreds come to the fore. Flaming people over it is swiftly and brutally punished by moderators.

* The treaty between Watches in the ''Literature/NightWatch'' 'verse, which is openly inspired (bordering on the {{Anvilicious}} actually) by the actual Cold War. Add two millennia-old [[TheChessmaster Chessmasters]] with magic powers enough to make the most absurd GambitRoulette seem timid. [[spoiler: The Inquisition is the higher power here.]]
** Technically, the [[spoiler:Inquisition]] doesn't have a ''lot'' of magical power, most of which comes from artifacts and amulets anyway. The idea is that, should either of the sides break the Treaty, the [[spoiler:Inquisition]] would throw their support behind the other side, tipping the balance. Thus, their power is mostly political.

* In the ''StarTrekNewFrontier'' novel ''Cold Wars'', the Aeron and the Markanians had a long drawn-out war over the Holy Site on their world. The Thallonian Empire forcibly relocated them to separate planets with no space travel. Unfortunately for everyone, SufficientlyAdvancedAliens decide to supply them with portal devices.

** In ''ForgottenRealms'' setting: enforced in the House wars of Menzoberranzan: espionage, conspiracy and secret raids against rival houses are permitted, even encouraged, but woe be to those who get caught. Failures to enforce it caused whole cities to be utterly destroyed (Golothaer, [[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Great_Bhaerynden Bhaerynden aka Telantiwar]] aka ''Great Rift''), ruined and taken by external force ([[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Insurrection Ched Nasad]]) or weakened and massacred by neighbours ([[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Maerimydra Maerimydra]]). Menzoberranzan barely escaped the same fate ''twice'' during Silence of Lolth (seven months) alone. And Baenre rule Menzoberranzan because it was their matron who said "stop the madness" when all-out fight began, Menzoberra was killed and the cavern itself seriously reshaped. They are ''that'' aggressive.

* TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}: Oddly enough, given that in the forty-first millennium there is only war, this occurs for varying stretches of time between the Imperium of Man and various alien empires simply due to the fact that while the Imperium or said alien empire is tied up elsewhere a hostile peace exists between them. This occurs mostly with races such as the Tau Empire, which has on-off peaces with the Imperium on its border, rather than AxCrazy races like the Orks or all-devouring galactic munchers like the Tyranids.

* In ''MagicTheGathering'''s Ravnica Block, the different guilds keep the peace using the Guildpact. It sets statutes and ordinances for each guild so that each of the ten guilds has its own place. Of course, this doesn't stop the various guild leaders from trying to find as many loopholes as possible.
* In the [[StarFleetBattles Star Fleet Universe]], which is based on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (and veers sharply from the canon Franchise/StarTrek universe from there) had the Organian Peace Treaty, that is until they up and vanish right as Federation-Klingon tensions are at their highest, leading the Second Four Powers War to evolve into The General War.
** After the General War, the Interstellar Concordium tried to do this by forcibly separating the exhausted former combatants.

*** Seeing as one walkthrough of the capital planets of both factions proves that the Empire's manpower, infrastructure, industrial capability, and scientific development is miles behind the Republic (their capitol city is the size of a Republic core world military base, they don't have a ''paved road'' to their spaceport, meaning anything coming from the spaceport to their capitol is marching through mud trails through beast-infested jungle), coupled with boneheaded FantasticRacism, an untenable reliance on slave labor that wastes at least half of their manpower (they have the slaves building momuments to the Darths' egoes, not roads or outposts), constant infighting, and KlingonPromotion being not only acceptable but ''accepted'' practice (leaving them with even ''fewer'' experienced Force Users, officers, and administrators while their replacement's only real qualification is being quicker on the draw), one could argue that the Treaty of Coruscant saved the ''Empire's'' bacon. Unfortunately, it plays ''right'' into the [[OmnicidalManiac Emperor's]] hands, since he doesn't care about his own Empire and just wants to kill off everything in the universe except himself.
* Heavily implied to be the sole purpose of Ravens' NEST in VideoGame/ArmoredCore (and its later incarnations: Nerves Concord, Global Cortex and Raven's Ark). When Companies are strong enough to wield walker mechs, floating battleships and everything in-between, only skilled, non-affiliated [[GunsForHire Ravens]] can keep or even ''enforce'' a level playing field between feuding Companies. This is subverted in later incarnations of Armored Core 3 timeline, where the then Raven organization, Ravens' Ark, was, in essence, "bought" by Companies, triggering the conflict in Last Raven.
* A large part of the ''VideoGame/EscapeVelocity Override'' galaxy is inhabited by a loose confederation of alien races called the Crescent. Three of them, the Adzgari, Zidagar, and Igadzra, are in a perpetual state of MeleeATrois managed by a group called the Council who intervene to make sure none of them grow too powerful.
** In the planned sequel (a FanSequel, but the project was started and the original design made by the developer of the original ''Override'', even if he [[PromotedFanboy technically]] still counted as a fan), this would have been abandoned -- the Council's primary (indeed, for most purposes sole -- for the thing to work it was critically important that the Council's interference not be known to the Strands) method of keeping the war going and balanced was its extensive network of operatives amongst the three. The problem was that the Council had ''no'' human operatives, so when humans start showing up and taking sides, the Strand War is nearly fatally destabilized. Instead, the Council opts for something that's arguably closer to this trope -- just directly taking control of the three Strands. The Strands still don't ''like'' each other, but under the Council and its agents they're forced to remain at peace and start assimilating into each-other.

* In ''[[XMenEvolution X-Men: Evolution]]'', the Xavier Institute students and the Brotherhood boys attend the same high school, at least keeping them civil on campus. Magneto also kept the latter party from accidentally exposing the existence of mutants ([[spoiler:he wanted to do that on ''his'' terms, not theirs]]).

* ''CodeLyoko'': The Supercomputer is the team's main resource, and Aelita's survival is dependent on it. It also happens to house their enemy XANA [[spoiler:-- until the end of Season 2.]]

* Arguably, the ''original'' Cold War was enforced as well, not by God or SufficientlyAdvancedAliens but by fear of the consequences - best-case scenario was a body count to rival the First World War, worst-case was the end of human civilisation - if [[WorldWarIII it went hot]].

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* ''Anime/DualParallelTroubleAdventure'' utilized a very literal example of this trope. The two waring [[HumongousMecha mecha]] factions in the show only fought at pre-scheduled places and times, and the pilots were allowed to [[GracefulLoser tap out]] when it looked like were going to lose. As in the [[TruthInTelevision real life]] Cold War, the point of this was to keep the world from being [[StoryboardingTheApocalypse wrecked]] by the [[WeaponOfMassDestruction weapons of mass destruction]] possessed by both sides.

* TheAmericanCivilWar was pretty much the culmination of a cold war which the free states and slave states had been waging against each other since about the WarOf1812. The Civil War wasn't even the first time this conflict turned hot (hello Bleeding Kansas). It was enforced by the federal government, which generally tried to maintain peace between the two sides without ever addressing the real issue.

* "The Baron's Peace" in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is one of these. Said Baron is an [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] who will do anything to maintain peace, and he controls an unequaled superpower that lets him do so. He is an old and very experienced mad scientist, in a setting where most of them tend to die quite young. He leads the continent's largest military force, overwhelming air superiority, and the most advanced military hardware/clockwork troops/mutant brigades. After a ZombieApocalypse he was personally responsible for rebuilding European society through willpower and force, and for sectioning off the parts of it which are toxic or infested. He doesn't care how much the nobility squabble over land or ancestry, but if a battle ever breaks out, he shuts down both sides with [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill complete overkill]]. That is ''The Baron's Peace''.

** Colto (the compound supplied by Manaan) is eventually pushed out by the much more effective and widely-available bacta. Say good-bye to neutrality.

** Technically, the [[spoiler:Inquisition]] doesn't have a ''lot'' of magical power, most of which comes from artifacts and amulets anyway. The idea is that, should either of the sides break the Treaty, the Inquisition would throw their support behind the other side, tipping the balance. Thus, their power is mostly political.

* ''MachinimaRedVsBlue'' revolves around two ostensibly warring factions who rarely attack each other and never do it effectively, with the only medic blatantly working for both armies. This should have been a bigger tip-off that Red and Blue were in fact commanded by the same government, and the war was a construct. Of course, the teams are also idiots.

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the White Council and the vampire Courts start the series in an uneasy peace, enforced by the terms of the Unseelie Accords. Eventually Dresden is forced to choose between letting his lover die and starting the magical equivalent of World War III; this is of course a classic setup for TakeAThirdOption. [[spoiler:Only not in this case. [[AlwaysSaveTheGirl Dresden chooses World War III]], with enormous repercussions in later books.]]
* Inverted in the Creator/IsaacAsimov story, "The Gentle Vultures". In it, pacifist, herbivorous aliens go from world to world to help the survivors of the nuclear war that inevitably breaks out in every intelligent speccies except them. This help is given in return for tribute in the form of resources, creating a form of economic imperialism. When the aliens get to Earth, though, they discover that the Cold War situation is keeping nuclear war from occurring, and may do so indefinitely. [[spoiler: They then decide to force things by causing a nuclear war themselves. However, when a human that they abduct for information castigates them and compares them to carrion-eaters, they become horrified at the idea of what they're about to do and leave Earth to its own devices.]]

* In the [[StarFleetBattles Star Fleet Universe]], which is based on ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' (and veers sharply from the canon Franchise/StarTrek universe from there) had the Organian Peace Treaty, that is until they up and vanish right as Federation-Klingon tensions are at thier highest, leading the Second Four Powers War to evolve into The General War.

* "The Baron's Peace" in ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'' is one of these. Said Baron is an [[TheUnfettered Unfettered]] who will do anything to maintain peace, and he controls an unequalled superpower that lets him do so. He is an old and very experienced mad scientist, in a setting where most of them tend to die quite young. He leads the continent's largest military force, overwhelming air superiority, and the most advanced military hardware/clockwork troops/mutant brigades. After a ZombieApocalypse he was personally responsible for rebuilding European society through willpower and force, and for sectioning off the parts of it which are toxic or infested. He doesn't care how much the nobility squabble over land or ancestry, but if a battle ever breaks out, he shuts down both sides with [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill complete overkill]]. That is ''The Baron's Peace''.

* ''CodeLyoko'': The Supercomputer is the team's main resource, and Aelita's survival is dependant on it. It also happens to house their enemy XANA [[spoiler:-- until the end of Season 2.]]

* Arguably, the ''original'' Cold War was enforced as well, not by God or SufficientlyAdvancedAliens but by fear of the consequences - best-case scenario was a bodycount to rival the First World War, worst-case was the end of human civilisation - if [[WorldWarIII it went hot]].

* In ''ToLoveRu'', Rito is forced to go to school with Yami, the infamous alien assasin known throughout the galaxy who wants to kill Rito, but doesn't because she's best friends with his sister. She will however try if he does anything ecchi towards her [[AccidentalPervert which has Rito narrowly escaping death on a daily basis]]

** Most drow lives like that, in the framework of [[EvilMatriarch Lolth]] [[ReligionOfEvil theocracy]]: otherwise infighting turns into AxCrazy all-out war and then genocide -- and [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly she needs them alive]].

** After the General War, the Intersteller Concordium tried to do this by forceably separating the exhasted former combatants.

* ''RedVsBlue'' revolves around two ostensibly warring factions who rarely attack each other and never do it effectively, with the only medic blatantly working for both armies. This should have been a bigger tip-off that Red and Blue were in fact commanded by the same government, and the war was a construct. Of course, the teams are also idiots.

** In ''VideoGame/TheOldRepublic'', the Republic and the Sith Empire are this state due to the Treaty of Coruscant. While neither side is willing to openly break the treaty, border skirmishes are common and both sides support proxy rebellions to seize control over various worlds. To a small degree, this also has lead to both sides employing Smugglers and Bounty Hunters so they can claim deniability that they weren't doing anything ''officially'' sanctioned. Over the course of the game, the peace eventually dissolves into open war.

* An interesting variant shows up in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'': the Republic and the Sith are very much openly at war with each other, but both sides are dependent on trade with the neutral planet of Manaan, which supplies a unique and very valuable organic compound used in medical supplies that neither army can do without. Thus, both the Republic and the Sith maintain a military presence and an embassy on Manaan, but have to avoid direct conflict lest the government cut off trade with the aggressor, and many of the quests on the planet are outright illegal acts of espionage against the Sith. Low level conflicts sometimes occur (such as a "Let me at them!" type BarBrawl) which do not go condoned, but punishment is usually limited to minor trade sanctions as long as the conflict does not escalate.