History Main / SpaceColdwar

** Also note that the Consortium is a Corporatocracy while the Autonomists are a mix of anarcho-capitalists, [[CreatorsPet anarcho-communists]][[note]]not an oxymoron, robots and {{Matter Replicator}}s handle logistics[[/note]], democratic communists, and interplanetary gypsies.

** What became Deadworld had its own version of the Apocalypse War. The Soviets decided to strike while their American enemy was undergoing their own civil war... but didn't expect to invade in what was basically the middle of a ZombieApocalypse. Their own capital is obliterated with a FantasticNuke that turns the entire city into a Necropolis.

** What became Deadworld had its own version of the Apocalypse War. The Soviets decided to invade while their American enemy was undergoing their own civil war... but didn't expect to invade in what was basically the middle of a ZombieApocalypse. Their own capital is obliterated with a FantasticNuke that turns the entire city into a Necropolis.

* The early years of ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' had an uneasy peace between Mega City One and the Sov Block. They have a "war" (actually a televised BloodSport in which the winner is given territory) during the Luna-1 arc, but until the outbreak of The Apocalypse War, it's treated as a Cold War type scenario. Afterwards, it goes back to being that again, with Dredd sometimes teaming up with Sov judges though ''Day Of Chaos'' was a Sov plot.

* In the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse, the [[Literature/StarTrekTyphonPact Typhon Pact vs the nations of the Khitomer Accords]]. Six previously antagonistic races, the Breen, Gorn, Tholians, Tzenkethi, Romulans and Kinshaya, formed new galactic superpower the Typhon Pact, which is a rival to the United Federation of Planets. The Federation responded by expanding their alliance with the Klingons to also include the Ferengi and the Cardassians, while also courting the Talarians. Now there are two large political blocs competing politically, economically, and technologically. They've even had their Cuban Missile Crisis in the novel ''Brinkmanship''. Basically, the entire franchise is built around a Cold War.

** The war begins to heat up when the discovery of a new Unobtainium, Azerite[note]Ironically, this substance was once the true source of Immortality and considered a mystic, unobtainable spiritual quality on par with holiness. Now the scientists are studying the hell out of it and have utterly weaponized and applied it to improve their war aspects, unaware they're using the soul-blood of a ''god'' for mortal ends.[/note], leads to a general arms race and the conquest of third-world countries that are either Azerite deposits or key positions for the upcoming war.

** Promotional material also suggests that the two resident Human empires exist in this state. The United Federation of Planets, a peaceful, xenophilic, democratic society, is at odds with the warlike, authoritarian, xenophobic Commonwealth of Man.

* ''Franchise/SentouYouseiYukikaze'' features a 30+ years long cold war between the United Nations' expeditionary force the Faery Air Force against the [[InscrutableAliens JAM]]. It was once a hot war when [[AlienInvasion the JAM tried to invade Earth]] but has now settled into a cold war, complete with a LensmanArmsRace and a long stalemate. A huge plot twist in the novels ([[AdaptationDistillation not the anime]]) was that [[spoiler: the JAM never knew humans existed until very recently, which meant humanity was the proxy victim of a war that the JAM thought they were fighting against our computers and technology.]]

* The protagonist of ''[[Literature/TheLostFleet]]'' series was at ground-zero when one of these suddenly boiled over out of the blue, and a major sub-plot of the first five novels is finding out why.

* This is the basic relationship between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In the mid-8th Century M41 the tau demonstrated during the Damocles Gulf Crusade that man for man, they're at least as competent at warfare as the Imperium. In the long run, the Imperium would win a campaign to wipe out the Tau, but it would require committing more forces than are present in the Damocles Gulf, which would mean stripping other regions of the galaxy of Imperial military resources, and there is too great a risk other threats to the Imperium would use that to gain a foothold. Conversely, the Tau recognise that if they provoke the Imperium too much, the humans may decide the benefits of exterminating them outweigh the costs. So for the past 250 years or so the two empires have only fought what amounts to a series of border skirmishes (one planet changed hands seven times before the tyranids ate it), and both sides are also pragmatic enough to [[EnemyMine ally in the face of mutual enemies]] such as the necrons and tyranids.

* This is the basic relationship between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In the mid-8th Century M41 the tau demonstrated during the Damocles Gulf Crusade that man for man, they're at least as competent at warfare as the Imperium. In the long run, the Imperium would win a campaign to wipe out the Tau, but it would require committing more forces than are present in the Damocles Gulf, which would mean stripping other regions of the galaxy of Imperial military resources, and there is too great a risk other threats to the Imperium would use that to gain a foot. Conversely, the Tau recognise that if they provoke the Imperium too much, the humans may decide the benefits of exterminating them outweigh the costs. So for the past 250 years or so the two empires have only fought what amounts to a series of border skirmishes (one planet changed hands seven times before the tyranids ate it), and both sides are also pragmatic enough to [[EnemyMine ally in the face of mutual enemies]] such as the necrons and tyranids.

** The Klingons in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' were outright metaphors for Soviet expansionism. TheFederation was the idealistic, peaceful Western (read: American) society. The Klingons took up the loud, arrogant, warrior stereotype of the Russians, while particularly in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' the Romulans assumed the sinister, backstabbing, espionage/sabotage-laden stereotype of the Soviet Union, especially the Tal Shiar, which was the KGB in disguise. In an extremely apropos metaphor, the Klingons and Romulans switched from being allied to at war to being allies again at the drop of a hat. The Romulans also have their similarities to the Chinese, the secretive and testy on-and-off allies of Soviet Russia, and their relationship with the Vulcans - same species that broke into two factions - mirroring the state of Asian countries divided between communist and capitalist halves - mainland China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, etc.

* This state of affairs lasted for about two thousand years in the backstory of ''Fanfic/GameTheoryFanFic''. During the Dawn States era, none of the major powers ever committed their full forces against one another, for fear that another rival nation would take advantage of the opportunity. And then a SuccessionCrisis in the Belkan Empire escalated into civil war, which shattered the balance of power and led to the aptly named Warring States era.

** The The Asgard and the Goa'uld prior to ''Series/StargateSG1'', whose relations are governed by the Protected Planets Treaty. This treaty forbids Goa'uld invasion of certain worlds, and requires that the Goa'uld as a whole stop any rogue Goa'uld from doing so, but simultaneously acknowledges that humans exist to be hosts for the Goa'uld, and thusly are to have limited technology so as to never pose a threat to the System Lords. When Jack O'Neill questions why the Asgard stand for such a thing, and why they even allowed the Goa'uld to gain such power in the first place, Thor explains that the treaty is actually a complete bluff. The Asgard are so occupied fighting the war with the Replicators that they do not have the resources to actively combat the Goa'uld, forcing them to accept this "peace."

* Creator/JimButcher's ''Literature/TheCinderSpires'' begins with a cold war between Spire Albion and Spire Aurora that is based roughly on various Age of Sail interbellum, mainly the Anglo-Spanish conflicts in the Caribbean (with touches of the Napoleonic Wars) but in a [[TheSkyIsAnOcean sky-sailing setting]].

** Despite being a declared war, the fighting between the [[TheEmpire Federation]] and the [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Auroran]] [[TheAlliance Empire]] in ''Nova'' has devolved to this, with frequent border skirmishes. Reason being, the last time the war went full-scale, both sides struck far behind the lines and millions of innocents died, forcing the combatants to devote the bulk of their forces to HomeGuard duty.
** ''Override'' has a similar situation approached from the opposite side -- there actually ''is'' a peace treaty between the United Earth and the Voinian Empire, but outside Pax Station (''literally'' outside -- the system sees regular skirmishes), no-one seems to actually care about it (in fact, if it wasn't for Pax Station it wouldn't even be known there ''was'' a peace treaty, since the reasons given on both sides for not making major offensives are all practical).

** After Babylon 5 secures its independence from [=EarthGov=] following the extremely unconstitutional and fascist actions taken by [[PresidentEvil President Clark]], they essentially go into a cold war period that lasts for the next season. Sheridan and his forces are busy dealing with the Shadows and Clark is trying to further secure his power base on Earth. Once the Shadow War ends, this turns into a propaganda war. The cold war ends when Clark commits his worst atrocity, having his ships fire on refugee transports resulting in the murders of 10,000 innocent civilians, [[ThisIsUnforgivable enraging Sheridan into beginning full armed conflict.]]

** The Klingons in ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' were outright metaphors for Soviet expansionism. TheFederation was the idealistic, peaceful Western (read: American) society. The Klingons took up the loud, arrogant, warrior stereotype of the Russians, while particularly in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' the Romulans assumed the sinister, backstabbing, espionage/sabotage-laden stereotype of the Soviet Union, especially the Tal Shiar, which was the KGB in disguise. In an extremely apropos metaphor, the Klingons and Romulans switched from being allied to at war to being allies again at the drop of a hat. The Romulans also have their similarities to the Chinese, the secretive and testy on-and-off allies of Soviet Russia, and their relationship with the Vulcans - same species that broke into two factions - mirroring the state of Asian countries divided between communist and capitalist halfs - mainland China and Taiwan, North and South Korea, North and South Vietnam, etc.

** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' featured a TimeTravel cold war called the Temporal Cold War. Interestingly, the incipient Federation played the part of third world in this conflict, being used as a pawn between two secretive factions who were neither of them the ''nice'' guys, even if one was the "good" guys. A future version of the Federation was ''at least'' one of the sides of this rather confusing, and clearly not thought entirely through, cold war.

* Declaring Rivals in ''VideoGame/Stellaris'' is essentially this. Declaring a rivalry gives you a bonus to influence, which is essential in extending your borders. Notably, your rival doesn't have to reciprocate, which can lead to a situation where your ships in Rival Territory could still move about until said rival responds by declaring you a rival (or at the least, closing borders).

* This is the basic relationship between the Imperium of Man and the Tau Empire in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}''. In the mid-8th Century M41 the tau demonstrated during the Damocles Gulf Crusade that man for man, they're at least as competent at warfare as the Imperium. However the human empire is several orders of magnitude larger, so the tau can't afford to antagonize them overmuch. At the same time, for all its might the Imperium doesn't have the resources to just be rid of the tau: they certainly ''could'' if they had to, but the resource expenditure would be well beyond what the local forces in the Damocles Gulf could manage, requiring the Imperium to retask ships and men that are keeping problems elsewhere in the galaxy at bay. So for the past 250 years or so the two empires have only fought what amounts to a series of border skirmishes (one planet changed hands seven times before the tyranids ate it), and both sides are also pragmatic enough to [[EnemyMine ally in the face of mutual enemies]] such as the necrons and tyranids.

* ''Anime/PrincessPrincipal'' has a Steampunk Cold War. Albion, an alternate-universe Great Britain, has been divided by a revolution into the Kingdom in the east and the Commonwealth in the west. In a clear analogue to Cold War-era Berlin, the [[TheGreatWall GreatWall]] separating the two nations runs very close to the royal capital of London, which has become the battleground of both nations' spies.

* ''Anime/PrincessPrincipal'' has a Steampunk Cold War. Albion, an alternate-universe Great Britain, has been divided by a revolution into the Kingdom in the east and the Commonwealth in the west. In a clear analogue to Cold War-era Berlin, the GreatWall separating the two nations runs very close to the royal capital of London, which has become the battleground of both nations' spies.