History Main / GenghisGambit

* In ''Manga/DrStone,'' Suika thinks that Ginro's unexpected and ridiculous desire to become chief (and proclaim ramen every day and a harem for every man) was a way to unify the entire village against him so that Senku would be seen favorable as chief. [[SubvertedTrope It's anything but.]]

* In ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', [[spoiler:Sasuke]] wants to make [[ZeroApprovalGambit himself]] the focus of all of the shinobi world's hatred so that they will continue to operate together instead of against each other.

* In ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'': This is the ultimate plan of [[spoiler:Ozymandias to prevent nuclear war. He frames Dr. Manhattan for the destruction of dozens of cities around the world, uniting the world against a fictional super-human threat]].
* Bolivar Trask from ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' believes uniting the world against mutants will create a brighter, more peaceful future.

* UsefulNotes/ToyotomiHideyoshi's strategy in the 1590s to unite the feuding warlords of Japan was to invade Korea and China and let the warlords deal with their carnal fury. They didn't make it past Korea. While one can argue that it did have the effect of getting rid of quite a number of troops (who could have caused trouble in the now-peaceful united Japan), it also ironically weakened the Toyotomi clan's influence and power, which the next-most powerful samurai warlord, UsefulNotes/TokugawaIeyasu, exploited.

* This is how Alexander the Great united the recently conquered Greeks. He used the Persians as the hated common enemy. Ironically, after conquering Punjab, the warring tribes of India would set aside their disagreements to effectively present a united front against Alexander's Macedonian-Greek Army.

* This was the main reason for the early Crusades. The struggle of a common cause was intended by the Church to burn away the petty resentments between the Christian lords of Europe, and the land seized was to allow estates for spare sons. It didn't work well, as the kings of the Christian armies in the war zone didn't want to submit to one another and those in the lands on the march to Jerusalem didn't want to either.

* In the ''Series/XenaWarriorPrincess'' episode [[GroundhogDayLoop "Been There, Done That"]], Joxer decides to invoke this during one loop. He gets stuck full of pointy things for his trouble and ends up taking Xena and Gabrielle with him.

* In ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'', this is T'Kuvma's goal. The 24 Great Houses have been bickering and fighting with one another for decades. T'Kuvma dreams of a single reunified Klingon Empire. His plan is to summon the leaders of those houses and convince them that the Federation is their true enemy, that their CatchPhrase "We come in peace" is a bald-faced lie since they seek to subvert the Klingon culture. He deliberately doesn't blow the USS ''Shenzhou'' out of the sky, so that Captain Georgiou calls for backup. She does, and a dozen Starfleet ships arrive. Georgiu's NumberTwo thinks that the only way to deal with Klingons is to fire at them without provocation, as the Vulcans have been known to do. She doesn't know that T'Kuvma doesn't care who fires first. He plans to start a war either way. [[spoiler:Ultimately it [[GoneHorriblyRight Goes Horribly Right]]: He ends up firing first when Georgiou triggers his BerserkButton with the same CatchPhrase. Most of the Great Houses join the fight, but the Battle at the Binary Stars claims over 8000 lives, including T'Kuvma's, and the more devious General Kol of the House of Kor uses this as an opportunity to seize absolute power and leaves the House of T'Kuvma for dead.]]

* This was the main reason for the early Crusades. The struggle of a common cause was intended by the Church to burn away the petty resentments between the Christian lords of Europe, and the land seized was to allow estates for spare sons.

* Played terrifyingly straight in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 2''. [[spoiler:General Shepherd]] deliberately incites a shooting war with Russia in order to [[spoiler:instill patriotism, incite volunteers to the military, and unify America. If this sounds a little {{anvilicious}}, it comes across that way in the game, too. The death screens even warn about the dangers of excessive patriotism.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'': The Confederacy plans to secretly allow the Zerg to rampage fringe planets as an incentive to keep dissenting colonists in line. Later, Mengsk adopts the same plan and uses it to unite the various factions into a single empire, under his own thumb. Then Kerrigan enters the picture... [[spoiler:and uses the UED to ally herself to the Protoss, only to betray them. Then she strengthens the UED in order to get Mengsk, Raynor, and Fenix to join her against them, before betraying them too.]] Finally, in a bit of irony, [[spoiler:''Kerrigan'' becomes the "common enemy" that the UED, Dominion, and Protoss unite against. However, they aren't nearly as successful.]]

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', [[spoiler:Lelouch makes ''himself'' this threat, and then goes a step further by [[ThanatosGambit arranging his own assassination]], [[TheExtremistWasRight thus creating world peace]]]]. Interestingly enough, [[spoiler:his plan runs headlong into his sister Nunnaly's plan to do basically the same thing, albeit with [[TheBattlestar the Damocles]] rather than herself]]. It's InTheBlood, it seems. [[spoiler:Kallen in the epilogue suspects that he thought it would be easier if it involved a person rather than what was more of a weapon.]]

* UsefulNotes/NorthKorea keeps its people in line by uniting them against nothing less than ''the entire rest of the world'' (though mainly South Korea and the United States). As of March 2013, they seem to be uniting ''everyone else'' against ''them'' since even China (pretty much North Korea's only major ally) is agreeing to enforce sanctions against them now (calling them out on North Korea being an UngratefulBastard of a country, even comparing them to a spoiled child.)

* ''Franchise/SuperRobotWars:''

* ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'': This is Bian Zoldark's hidden motivation (and the game that inspired the story arc, ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars2''). He organizes the Divine Crusaders in a bid to conquer the world, figuring that either he will unite the world's powers against an alien threat -- or the world's powers will unite against ''him'', either way being better prepared for the invasion to come. He uses a double-layered version of this trope. He's able to create the Divine Crusaders in the first place thanks to a FalseFlagOperation where one of his agents provoked the aliens during a secret PeaceConference, then wipes out both forces. He then broadcasts a speech making it look like the aliens attacked government forces that were planning to surrender to them. So he makes the aliens look like the bad guys so he can unite his forces into being the bad guys to unite the world against the aliens that actually ''are'' the bad guys [[spoiler:and then the aliens at the peace conference turn out to be a different race conveniently disguised as the bad guys and oh god it's so confusing when it's compressed like this.]]

* ''ComicBook/PeterCannonThunderbolt2019''' references ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}'' (below), with a similar villain using much the same gambit, but going further. Wishing to unite humanity across the multiverse, he repeats the same "fake alien invasion genocide" in every universe he can find, despite its invariably catastrophic results.

** ''ComicBook/PeterCannonThunderbolt2019''' deliberately uses the same conceit by a similar villain, who wishes to unite humanity across all the multiverse by repeating the same "fake alien invasion genocide" on every universe he can find.

* In ''Film/{{Watchmen}}'': This is the ultimate plan of [[spoiler:Ozymandias to prevent nuclear war. He frames Dr. Manhattan for the destruction of New York City, uniting the world against a fictional super-human threat]].

* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' v.2 #85, "What If Magneto Ruled All Mutants?", Magneto does this to unite the factions of Acolytes battling on Asteroid M by creating the impression that a new-born baby is the next stage in mutant evolution and could lead to their extinction, just as humans have been concerned they would be destroye dby mutants.

* ''ComicBook/JudgementDayMarvelComics'' sees the Eternals go after the now-immortal X-Men in the belief that their current state makes them too dangerous to be allowed to exist. Although some of the Eternals (such as the OmnicidalManiac Uranos the Undying) genuinely believe the mutants must be annihilated, current Eternal leader Druig is starting the war for purely political reasons. He was promoted to Prime Eternal after [[spoiler:deposing Thanos, disarming Uranos's LoadBearingBoss traps and recovering the Eternals' lost armoury]], but he's well aware that he's seen as a weak leader and will only retain power by uniting his people against an external threat.

* In ''ComicBook/WhatIf'' v.2 #85, "What If Magneto Ruled All Mutants?", Magneto does this to unite the factions of Acolytes battling on Asteroid M.

* In ''Anime/CodeGeass'', [[spoiler:Lelouch makes ''himself'' this threat, [[UpToEleven and then goes a step further]] by [[ThanatosGambit arranging his own assassination]], [[TheExtremistWasRight thus creating world peace]]]]. Interestingly enough, [[spoiler:his plan runs headlong into his sister Nunnaly's plan to do basically the same thing, albeit with [[TheBattlestar the Damocles]] rather than herself]]. It's InTheBlood, it seems. [[spoiler:Kallen in the epilogue suspects that he thought it would be easier if it involved a person rather than what was more of a weapon.]]