History Main / PeaceConference

[[caption-width-right:350: The Chief of State of the [[TheAlliance New Republic]] and the Supreme Commander of the [[TheEmpire Imperial fleet]] call off the war.]]

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Diana manages to force peace talks between the Saturnian Empire, Paradise Island and the United States before the Empire launches its full scale attack. While this does result in a treaty the Empire only intends to follow it to the letter and is poised to take advantage of any perceived breech by the other signers.

[[quoteright:350:[[Literature/HandOfThrawn https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Gavrisompellaeon.jpg]]]]

* As stated by the opening ''Series/BabylonFive'' was designed to be a place for settling disputes diplomatically. It didn't go so well.

Since not everyone is interested in peace, someone will probably try to sabotage the talks -- usually with a FalseFlagOperation. Sometimes the more evil side just wants access to the other side's leadership, but typically peace talks are a good sign that [[WhiteAndGreyMorality neither]] [[GreyAndGreyMorality side]] is entirely evil, and both are in fact fairly reasonable.

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Diana manages to force peace talks between the Saturnian Empire, Paradise Island and the United States before the Empire launches its full scale attack. While this does result in a treaty the Empire only intends to follow it to the letter and is poised to take advantage of any perceived breech by the other signers.

[[folder: Tabletop Games]]

* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Diana manages to force peace talks between the Saturnian Empire, Paradise Island and the United States before the Empire launches its full scale attack. While this does result in a treaty the Empire only intends to follow it to the letter and is poised to take advantage of any precised breech by the other signers.

* ''[[ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersBoomStudios Go Go Power Rangers]] [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the infamous PutOnABus moment. Following the events of ''ComicBook/MightyMorphinPowerRangersShatteredGrid'', Jason is confronted by one of the Emissaries of the Morphin' Grid and asked to become part of a group of secret Rangers known as the Omega Rangers. He recruits Zack and Trini, but since they can't tell the other Rangers, Jason lies and claims they're going on a Peace Conference. Ultimately, both Tommy and Zedd consider the three of them cowards, both of them stating that if Zedd wins, there won't be a ''need'' for a peace conference.

* A successful one happens in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'' where angels, fallen angels, and devils formed a peace treaty with each other and is known historically as the "Kuon Treaty", named after the academy that they were at. Unforunately, there's a certain group that doesn't want in on the peace treaty because either a) they still want to continue the ForeverWar, and b) the old generation doesn't want to recognize the new generation as the leaders.
* ''Anime/TransformersArmada'' has one of the most odd cases. At the start of the first ever Autobot-Decepticon alliance. [[BigGood Optimus Prime]] and [[BigBad Megatron]] meet at a peace conference and shake hands to commemorate the alliance, along with several other Autobots and Decepticons (who have mixed feelings).

* ''Literature/StarTrekForgedInFire'' features a conference between the Klingons and the Federation, although this is a few years before the ''successful'' conference at Khitomer. Some ground work is laid here.
* Toward the end of Literature/BelisariusSeries. In this case it was in a weird way a PeaceConference between allies; in a way. TheEmperor of the Malwa had recently overthrown the one who had started the war and was simply clearing up loose ends. Thus in the [[EnemyCivilWar last campaign]] he actually had been an ally. In the peace conference the new emperor was giving himself a reasonable sized empire to begin his dynasty with, and letting his empire's former enemies worry about dividing the {{Plunder}}, a straightforward job for the most part as most of them just kept what they had conquered except for a massive palace with a hoard so big that it would inevitably be an object of interimperial rivalry if any one kept it. This problem was solved by donating it all to charity.

* The final season of ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24]]'' revolves around a UN-sponsored peace conference to end Kamistan's nuclear weapons programme.

* In ''Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers'', Jason, Zack and Trini were written out of the show by being sent to a Teen Peace Summit. "Sent to a peace conference" proceeded to become the production team's euphemism for what we call being PutOnABus.

* The Treaty of Thronehold in ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'', signed during a conference at the Galifarian capital of Thronehold. By the time it was signed, what remained of the Five Nations were all but exhausted by a century of war, and the [[NoodleIncident Day of]] [[FantasticNuke Mourning]] was the final straw. The treaty recognized several of the new nations established during the war, and forced said nations into peace.

** In the first game, one mission starts with a UN negotiator arriving to a conference with the GLA... and the GLA attacks, pretty much ForTheEvulz (later in the mission, they also destroy a dam that wipes out part of a town).
* ''VideoGame/SuikodenIII'' opens with a cease-fire agreement being negoiated by the Grassland Clans and the Zexen Confederacy, while the Holy Kingdom of Harmonia is waiting for a secret treaty to ''expire'' so they can launch a new offensive. Needless to say, since this is the ''start'' of the game, the treaty meeting doesn't go well.

* Early on in ''[[VisualNovel/{{Sunrider}} Sunrider Liberation Day]]'', Kayto Shields is invited to listen in on peace talks between the Solar Alliance and a moderate faction of PACT. While both sides sincerely want peace, neither one is willing to budge on their respective demands[[note]]Admiral Grey of the Solar Alliance wants to maintain a presence in the Neutral Rim so he can provide humanitarian aid to the hundreds of planets devastated in the war, while Veniczar Fontana of PACT wants both factions to pull out of the Neutral Rim so it doesn’t become “the Alliance’s backyard”[[/note]] and so the talks don’t go anywhere. The end of the game also features the titular Liberation Day ceremony, meant to mark the liberation of Cera, the defeat of PACT’s hardliners and the end of the war. [[spoiler:It ends in failure when a possessed Chigara shoots Admiral Grey dead and turns some {{Spider Tank}}s loose on the attending delegates, ensuring that the war escalates.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'', Chameleon tries to disrupt the singing of a peace treaty between two long-warring nations.

* In the United States, the best known are the Panmunjom Truce talks during the UsefulNotes/KoreanWar which led to the cease fire; and the Paris Peace Accords which ended the direct American involvement in the UsefulNotes/VietnamWar. Neither one has good connotations for Americans. As pointed out in ''Series/{{Mash}}'', the Panmunjom talks spent years arguing on the shape of the conference table (which was a RedHerring for the real issues). The Paris Peace Accords were quickly broken by North Vietnam, which attacked and defeated South Vietnam.

* In a way RealLife peace conferences are theater because the negotiations all took place beforehand. No head of state can politically afford to come to a PeaceConference without returning with a treaty so doing negotiations in person hurts a head of states bargaining ability. Therefore proper peace conferences should be done secretly and the alleged PeaceConference is only to solemnize it with a lot of pomp.

** Most of the world's politicians and diplomats go to one of these... And [[WarOnTerror thanks to terrorists]], [[BoardToDeath they don't come back]], leaving the eponymous [[TyrantTakesTheHelm Generals to seize control of all the nations.]]

* In ''[[Literature/{{Worldwar}} Worldwar: Striking the Balance]]'', Fleetlord Atvar of the Race holds one with the foreign ministers from Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States, with Great Britain and Japan as observers. [[spoiler:It results in the Race agreeing to let all these countries (plus Canada) remaining independent but the Race ruling the rest of the world. The biggest point of contention is over Poland. Since the Nazis and Soviets still dispute control over Poland, the Race decides they will maintain control of it. The Soviets accept this, but not the Nazis – until the Nazis’ plan to detonate a nuclear bomb in Poland fails.]]

* In ''[[Literature/{{Worldwar}} Worldwar: Striking the Balance]]'', Atvar holds one with the foreign ministers from Germany, the Soviet Union, and the United States, with Great Britain and Japan as observers. [[spoiler:It results in the Race agreeing to let all these countries (plus Canada) remaining independent but the Race ruling the rest of the world. The biggest point of contention is over Poland. Since the Nazis and Soviets still dispute control over Poland, the Race decides they will maintain control of it. The Soviets accept this, but not the Nazis – until the Nazis’ plan to detonate a nuclear bomb in Poland fails.]]

Since not everyone is interested in peace, someone will probably try to sabotage the talks--usually with a FalseFlagOperation. Sometimes the more evil side just wants access to the other side's leadership, but typically peace talks are a good sign that [[WhiteAndGreyMorality neither]] [[GreyAndGreyMorality side]] is entirely evil, and both are in fact fairly reasonable.

--> '''Cyclonus''': Ha! I can't believe I'm fighting for harmony! What a load of bunk! I'm a lean, mean, fighting machine! [[AxeCrazy Hahahaha!]]
--> '''Side Swipe''': I gotta work with this guy? I'm not so sure about this.

* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'', after some Espers destroy the imperial capital Vector, TheEmpire invites [[LaResistance The Returners]] to offer a cease-fire and invite them to help negotiate with the Espers-- a peace conference to set the stage for another peace conference. [[spoiler: This turns out to be a trap for the Espers, which leads in to the second half of the game.]]
* Used in ''VideoGame/WargameEuropeanEscalation'', at the end of a campaign which proposes that West and East Germany went to war over the defection of Werner Weinhold. The final mission involves holding off a Warsaw Pact attack on a NATO salient, with a timer ticking down until a ceasefire agreement in signed. The Pact forces bring out one last offensive push as the timer goes to zero--only for the negotiations to deadlock and the mission to continue for a few minutes more!

** The nuclear negotiations in Geneva in November 2013 between the representatives of the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia, China (collectively the P5+1) and Iran are a rare case in the modern world of the actual official conference between high-level officials (foreign ministers) being where the actual deal was made. This was necessary in part because the backchannels are not as strong between the US and Iran as they are in many cases, and in part because this conference was as much a trust-building exercise as an attempt to resolve substantive issues (the actual agreement set up a temporary freeze on Iranian nuclear activity in exchange for easing of sanctions and a commitment to further talks). The negotiations were largely secret, but cameras were allowed in every now and again; they revealed the negotiations were being held in the most ordinary-looking hotel conference room ever, the result of a double-booking. Seriously--the delegations were reduced to eating takeout because the hotel was overcommitted on catering the other event (the Iranians opted for Iranian food from a local restaurant that did delivery, while the Americans and Brits apparently split pizzas).

* ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'' has one of these as the focus of its first act. It’s a gathering of many website leaders, who sit down and try to work out an alliance in the face of a greater threat. This being the Internet, [[NotSoOmniscientCouncilOfBickering, it’s not very easy]], but they finally manage to reach a consensus [[spoiler:just in time for STORM to attack and wipe them all out.]]