History Main / TheChamberlain

[[quoteright:320:[[RealLife http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nevillechamberlain.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:310:[-Relax, [[TheKingsSpeech Herr Hitler will sort it out]]-].]]

->''My good friends, this is the second time in our history that there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. [[DramaticIrony I believe it is]] [[BeamMeUpScotty peace for our time.]]''
-->-- '''NevilleChamberlain''', TropeNamer

->''They were given a choice between dishonour and war. They chose dishonour. [[MortonsFork They will have war]].''
-->-- '''WinstonChurchill''', [[http://www.military-quotes.com/Churchill.htm his successor]]

A new BigBad is on the march. Time for the forces of good to stand up and fight. Unfortunately for the heroes, the man in charge of their particular political organization is TheChamberlain, who sees no reason to do this. Perhaps he literally doesn't see the threat. Perhaps he doesn't think that the threat is a problem for their specific country. In any event, he's going to do his best to get in the way of doing anything productive to fight the villain. TheChamberlain is usually not portrayed as himself a bad guy, just willfully blind to the problem.

May also be an ObstructiveBureaucrat. Frequently used by the villain as part of a XanatosGambit; if he succeeds, great, but if not, he'll still slow the heroes down. Compare with TheQuisling, a leader who is literally in the employ of the villain. Opposite number to the ReasonableAuthorityFigure. See also DividedWeFall and WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong.
----
'''Examples:'''

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:{{Comics}}]]* The Guardians of the Universe in the GreenLantern mythos frequently fill this role, most recently in the "Blackest Night" event, where all save two refuse to believe in the prophecy and the coming of the War of Light until it is too late.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]
* In a non-military example, the President and Vice President ([[{{NoCelebritiesWereHarmed}} who are clearly not George Bush and Dick Cheney]]) in ''TheDayAfterTomorrow'', particularly the latter. Neither is ready to accept (perhaps with some good reason) the scientific predictions of instant doom for half the world.
* The Jedi Council in the ''StarWars'' prequels, particularly the first one. Even after they recognize the problem, they are hard-pressed to not act like idiots.
** Count Dooku leaves the Jedi because of this, among other reasons. When he later turns up as the leader of an enemy movement, the Jedi and Chancellor Palpatine STILL sit on their butts until the very last second. Palpatine has an excuse (he's secretly bossing Dooku around). The Jedi don't.
** YMMV, but Padme as well. She leads a cadre of senators who want to defeat the proposed Republic bill to create a standing army. It really isn't her pacifism, but the fact that, given who the Republic is dealing with, she should know better. The Trade Federation quickly curbstomped her planet only ten years before and they're the ones bankrolling Dooku, along with a dozen other similar organizations.
*** When Anakin confesses his genocidal ways to Padmé, she consoles him, telling him he's not as bad as he thinks he is.
* Mayor Phlegmming in ''OsmosisJones''.
* The Prime Minister in ''[[{{Quatermass}} Quatermass and the Pit]]''.
* King Theoden flirts with being this briefly in the film version of ''[[LordOfTheRings Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King]]'', initially refusing to help Gondor, [[GondorCallsForAid but he is quickly persuaded to help]].
* The Archon in ''[[{{Film/Immortals}} Immortals]]'' is sure that he can negotiate with King Hyperion, right until the moment where Hyperion kills him.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]
* DavidWeber: The liberal and pro-peace political parties in any of his novels are written as naïve people who believe in the “peace at any cost” philosophy.
** TabletopGame/{{Starfire}}
** Literature/HonorHarrington
** InFuryBorn
* Cornelius Fudge in the ''HarryPotter'' books and films. He ended up getting the sack after the true nature of the threat became apparent, lingering, like Chamberlain, as an advisor to his successor.
** Considering that Voldemort and the Death Eaters are somewhat of a metaphor for Hitler and the Nazis, Fudge may have actually been intended to sit in for Chamberlain. Of course, we won't know until someone thinks to ask [[WordOfGod Rowling]] the question in her next interview...
** Brilliantly parodied in ''AVeryPotterMusical'' when Voldemort breaks into Fudge's office to take over the Ministry of Magic:
--->'''Voldemort''': Cornelius Fudge, the Minister of Magic!\\
'''Fudge''': I ''still'' don't believe you're back.\\
'''Voldemort''': Believe this, Fudge! Avada Kedavra!\\
'''Fudge''': Oh, heart attack... surely. ''[dies]''
* None of the Trojan leadership in ''Literature/TheIliad'' ever listens to [[CassandraTruth poor Cassandra]] (though that was [[JustifiedTrope divinely ordained]]).
* Prince (later King) Meurig of Gwent in ''TheWarlordChronicles''. He starts out by convincing his fellow Gwentians to back out of the war with Powys, which any realist would see would quickly lead to Dumnonia becoming a Powysian puppet-state, thus surrounding Gwent on three sides. In the second book, while king, refuses to intervene in a civil war in Dumnonia in support of Arthur, potentially leaving governance in the hands of a group of Saxon-backed conspirators. In the third, he refuses to join with the other British nations in resisting the Saxon invasion of Dumnonia, which proves a bridge too far: his father Tewdric returns to the throne briefly to resist the invasion. The series' framing device makes clear that Meurig's kingdom was within his lifetime mostly conquered by the Saxons.
* Mr. Desjardins, the Chief Lector of the House of Life in ''TheKaneChronicles'', spends most of the first book either ignoring or seeming not to care that Set is about to destroy the world, being more concerned with killing the god-hosting heroes. He eventually graduates to DividedWeFall.
* ExtendedUniverse Star Trek book "Before Dishonor" features a character who negotiates with the all powerful Borg which has assimilated Janeway and has Earth by the balls. Who then ''literally'' quotes Chamberlain...and is promptly blasted to smithereens.
* The StarWarsExpandedUniverse gives us the Fallanassi, who are such pacifists that, even when billions of people are dying, they refuse to take up arms.
* Lord Darlington in ''TheRemainsOfTheDay'' is one of the proponents of appeasement in the 1930s.
* The Pre War Presidential Administration in WorldWarZ, who ignored the solutions to preventing the looming global zombie outbreak, instead performing a few token solutions that ranged from unhelpful to genuinely harmful (Ie: Allowing a bogus vaccine to pass through the FCCC) . When interviewing the former Chief of Staff, [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Grover Carlson]], Max Brooks calls him out on this.
* ''Every. Single. Character'' with access to military resources in ''ASongOfIceAndFire''. After thousands of years, the Others have returned and are raising an army of the dead beyond the Wall? What imaginations the men of the Night's Watch have. Zombies or not, there's definitely an invasion underway and the Wall is hopelessly underdefended? Great, that should keep the King in the North busy and out of the fighting for the Iron Throne.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* President David Palmer on ''[=~24~=]'' is accused of being this in-story by his Vice President in season two, though he turns out to be right.
* Used many times in all incarnations of StarTrek. Chamberlains can be found liberally sprinkled among Starfleet's admiralty, the Federation's civilian leadership, and the councils of many alien worlds.
** SFDebris uses this trope when discussing the [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Demilitarized_Zone DMZ]], the [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Neutral_zone Neutral Zone]], or the [[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Maquis Maquis]].
* SeaQuestDSV: Secretary General Arthur McGath of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SeaQuest_DSV United Earth Oceans Organization (UEO)]] refuses to consider military action regardless of the threat.
* ''[[BabylonFive Babylon 5]]'' drops a pretty big [[{{Anvilicious}} anvil]] using one of these: in the second-season finale, as the station is gearing up for possible conflict with the newly (re-)military expansionist Centauri, a high-level diplomat comes to the station from Earth...and reveals that he's there to make a ''nonaggression treaty'' with the Centauri. ''He even says "peace in our time."'' [[http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/044.html]], [[http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Frederick_Lantze]], [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozp0N8CySRg]], [[http://blip.tv/sf-debris-opinionated-reviews/b5-the-fall-of-night-review-6002048]]
* Happens a few times in ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'', notably Kinsey and Woolsey (though the latter got character development). Repeatedly, when there ''is'' an {{Obstructive Bureaucrat}}, their problem is that they don't think that the enemy of the season is a real threat.
* In the original ''BattlestarGalactica'', the President worries about offending the Cylons, brushing off some very concerning warnings, only to lead his people into an ambush that nearly accomplishes the genocide of his entire people. [[spoiler: The [[TheQuisling chief peace broker]] was working for the Cylons the whole time.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]
* Referenced in ''{{Civilization}} IV'', where after meeting a rival civilization for the first time and you don't immediately declare war on them, your response is "There shall be peace in our time!" It's a very rare game indeed when such optimism isn't proven to be misplaced.
* Much like the later council in the ''Star Wars'' prequels, the plot of the ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' series is kick-started by the Jedi Council being content to sit and wait as Mandalorian armies ravage the Republic, with a number of Jedi going against their wishes and following Revan off to war. What's left of the council continues this sort of behavior in the second game - when you find them on your own, they're reasonable enough, but bring them all back together on Dantooine and, [[spoiler:simply because it's a little difficult to understand just what happened to you after the war, they're declaring you a Sith (lumping you together with the guy who regularly ''eats planets'') and threatening to kill you.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]
* An alarming number of examples to be found within the world of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Long Feng, the EvilChancellor of Ba-Sing-Se, has elements of this. While he's clearly aware of the war with the Fire Nation, he seems more interested in keeping in under wraps than actually doing anything about them, and he spends far more time scheming against the Avatar, the world's last realistic hope, than against his enemies.
*** Though he's not a completely straight example, as he ''is'' portrayed as outright evil, and he's very ruthless in enforcing his own power- he just doesn't want to jeopardize it.
** The leadership of the Northern Water Tribe also falls under this, having spent 85 years of a 100-year world war doing absolutely nothing following an earlier skirmish with the Fire Nation. They only rouse themselves to fight off a second invasion of their fortress-city, and after that they resume doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the series (contributing no forces to the last-chance invasion on the day of Black Sun, for example), although quite a few of them, including their greatest waterbender, were busy rebuilding the Southern Water Tribe.
** On a much smaller scale than the above, the leader of the village in "Avatar Dayâ" seems more interested in executing the Avatar for crimes committed in a past life than in helping the Avatar save the world, until Fire Nation soldiers arrive on his doorstep.
** All in all, the reason the Two Nations were losing the war became increasingly clear over the course of the series.
** A Subverted example from "Return to Omashu" would be King Bumi who when Fire Nation troops attacked immediatley surrendered and simply cackled about doing nothing,but subverted in that he was simply waiting for another moment to strike
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''SluggyFreelance'' the leaders of the Dimension of Lame [[http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/daily/20040608 jump head-on into this trope]] when they're attacked by DemonicInvaders. Their entire defense strategy consists of two phases: first, ask the demons to stop killing them ''really nicely''; second, if the first phase doesn't work, ask the demons to stop killing them really nicely ''a few million times''. Sending them fruit baskets is optional, but a plus.
** Of course, this is somewhat justified by it being an entire dimension of {{Actual Pacifist}}s, to the point where the most violently psychotic person in the entire dimension is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horrified]] when he stubs a demon's toe.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Whether this is a fair characterization of the historical NevilleChamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1937 to 1940, is up for debate. It is unquestionably his popcultural legacy but Britain was in no state to fight a war at that time and he did buy almost a year in which to prepare. However, Germany ''also'' was in no state to fight a continent-wide war in 1938. Even in 1939, Germany was really starting at least a year too soon, before they'd actually finished building up their forces. At one point, Hitler even privately admitted that he'd started too soon, but that he couldn't help it because Chamberlain had (to his great surprise) actually given him everything he asked for, which itself raises other questions, although Hitler ''also'' said that Chamberlain cheated him of his war in 1938 and if he had fought then he would have won. In short, Chamberlain might be TropeCodifier and TropeNamer. He might not. Historical assessments of him vary, with some calling him a clever diplomat, and others accusing him of "strategic blindness." '''[[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And we don't need an edit war over it.]]'''
* Contrary to AmericaWinsTheWar, the United States had aspects of this. Mussolini takes over Abyssinia? Not America's problem. Japan taking over China? Not America's problem. Japan moving into the South Pacific? Not America's problem. Hitler taking over Europe? Not America's problem. Jews and other "inferiors" coming to America because of the Nazi regime? The immigration quotas are filled, send them back. Pearl Harbor? Okay, now it's America's problem.
*** Like many other things, this was parodied in the "Lil' Hitler" sketches in one episode of ''RobotChicken'', the third (and last) of which had young Hitler all on his own in a classroom, his desk surrounded by every other one in the room - except for the fat American kid's, who declares "Psht, not my problem", until a Japanese kid comes out of nowhere and knocks over his milkshake, at which point he sighs and states "''Now'', it's my problem".
* In general (to avoid too much FlameBait), it's become standard for politicians to accuse any rivals who don't agree with them on some alleged danger of being TheChamberlain.
** UsefulNotes/NorthKorea: to avoid a FlameWar or FlameBait, let us just say that the majority of the goodwill towards North Korea has not been returned. The confirmed failure of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunshine_Policy Sunshine Policy]] by the government of UsefulNotes/SouthKorea was a factor in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Myung-bak Lee Myung-bak’s]] election to president. Also, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Democratic_Party_(Japan) Social Democratic Party (Japan)]] lost major political and public support when North Korea formally admitted to kidnapping Japanese citizens.
* Most schools in America (Yes, even some private schools) tend to do this when it comes to bullying.
** Not just America.
** The response to bullying often depends the cultural values and the local [[SocialServicesDoesNotExist social services]].
* Subverted by AlfredTheGreat: he several times paid "danegild", basically, protection money to dissuade HornyVikings from raping, pillaging, burning across your lands. He simply was prepared to back up gifts of gold with gifts of iron.
* Also subverted on the Indian Northwest Frontier. The British regularly paid Pathan tribes not to go on raids while making it obvious that tribes who broke their word would suffer [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge difficulties]]. As the Pathans usually broke their word anyway, one wonders how well paying them worked . On the other hand no other policy would have either.
* King Borris of Bulgaria used to do this by playing TheChamberlain to one faction after another in his kingdom in order to make all the other factions jealous. This made for a sort of BalanceOfPower.
[[/folder]]

----
<<|CharactersAsDevice|>>
<<|AuthorityTropes|>>

* Whether this is a fair characterization of the historical NevilleChamberlain, Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 1937 to 1940, is up for debate. It is unquestionably his popcultural legacy but Britain was in no state to fight a war at that time and he did buy almost a year in which to prepare. However, Germany ''also'' was in no state to fight a continent-wide war in 1938. Even in 1939, Germany was really starting at least a year too soon, before they'd actually finished building up their forces. At one point, Hitler even privately admitted that he'd started too soon, but that he couldn't help it because Chamberlain had (to his great surprise) actually given him everything he asked for, which itself raises other questions. In short, he might be. He might not. [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment And we don't need an edit war over it.]]
** Recently, Chamberlain was VindicatedByHistory. Or at least by {{Cracked}}[[http://www.cracked.com/article/186_6-historic-villains-you-didnt-know-had-incredible-careers_p2 .com]], [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/world-war-2/6062452/Neville-Chamberlain-should-be-praised-not-buried.html]]
** In 1938 a much weaker Germany would have had to face Britain, France, Czechoslovakia and Russia with no tanks obtained from Czech arnaments factories. In 1939 Germany had to face Britain, France and Poland with help from Russia and a year's worth of Czech tanks.
** WinstonChurchill himself, once he became Prime Minister and had access to all the information (including the secret stuff), noted that considering how bad any conflict was estimated to be, he understood Chamberlain's actions. Still disagreed with them, but understood. Churchill made him an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet, heading it in the new premier's absence. There is no doubt that Chamberlain worked very hard to help Churchill and resist the Nazis. The fact that his earlier image is the one remembered is partly due to the fact that he then proceeded to die from cancer in 1940.
*** This having been said, Winston Churchill was mainly responsible for giving Chamberlain his reputation. His memoirs paint Chamberlain as a well meaning but weak figure. He had to wait about thirty years before historians would start to defend his actions. Even if Churchill understood Neville's decisions, he was the perpetrator of a comprehensive character assassination against Chamberlain.
** To be fair to Chamberlain it would have been impossible to push Britain into war by any but the most drastic events, which of course AdolfHitler provided. Just imagine trying to convince a British public(including himself), just after WorldWarI that "I think we ought to start a global catastrophe because an eccentric German politician with a big mouth and rather distasteful opinions ''might'' be the epitome of all that is evil." AdolfHitler was so weird an anomaly that no one could ever guess it. The fact that WinstonChurchill did was lucky.
*** Lucky only in the respect that Hitler made the [[JamesBond Bond]] villain mistake of [[JustBetweenYouAndMe detailing his plans]] in ''Mein Kampf'', only for the West to ignore the book.
** Actually, reading the StanleyBaldwin page, it would seem that the trope is misnamed, and should be called The Baldwin. Baldwin actually started demilitarizing the country and later ignored Chamberlain's advice to remilitarize, thus being responsible for Britain not being ready to fight in 1938.
*** Not just Baldwin: the entire British political establishment in the 1930s was on an austerity kick (Baldwin's predecessor, RamsayMacdonald, had gone so far as to give up his official limousine and had to personally hail a taxi every time he wanted to travel around London on official business.) Military expenditure was a non-starter at a time of high unemployment, high taxes and widespread pacifist sentiment. (It was only a few years before Chamberlain's act of appeasement that the Oxford Union voted that they would refuse under ''any'' circumstances to "fight for King and Country.") Churchill was one of the few politicians to call for rearmament at that time, but his political influence was limited [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder because of his habit of switching parties every decade or so.]]
** Contrary to AmericaWinsTheWar, the United States had aspects of this. Mussolini takes over Abyssinia? Not America's problem. Japan taking over China? Not America's problem. Japan moving into the South Pacific? Not America's problem. Hitler taking over Europe? Not America's problem. Jews and other "inferiors" coming to America because of the Nazi regime? The immigration quotas are filled, send them back. Pearl Harbor? Okay, now it's America's problem.

[[quoteright:320:[[RealLife http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nevillechamberlain.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:310:[-Relax, [[TheKingsSpeech Herr Hitler will sort it out]]-].]]