History Main / ToWinWithoutFighting

ColonelBadass has the EvilArmy surrounded. Its a no-go situation for the villains. The RagtagBunchOfMisfits have completely disabled their supply lines. The BigDamnVillains that were expected to have arrived have been distracted by LaResistance and have failed to arrive. They're low on ammunition, starving and exhausted. The RedshirtArmy mounts the ridges on all sides of the EvilArmy, just about ready to launch into a brutal melee in which many of the good guys soldiers will probably die, but after which the EvilArmy will be [[LastStand utterly annihilated]].

* In JackieChanAdventures, one of the lessons Jackie would try to impart on Jade was "The greatest victory is the battle ''not'' fought."

* ''TheInexplicableAdventuresOfBob''-- During the attack on Butane, Galatea calls Riboflavin out for not at least attempting this; they've got the Butanians at a seemingly hopeless disadvantage, and she favors simply scaring them into surrendering, to give them a bloodless victory. Riboflavin answers, "Bloodless victory? ''Where's the fun in that?!"'' She successfully leads a mutiny against him (well, a mutiny of the only other two people on the ship).

* In ''StarWars'' the idea with the Death Star is not so much to use it, but to use the fear of what it could do to hold rebellious systems in line. In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse the Tarkin Doctrine is fully explained, referencing experiences with the Star Destroyers. While much smaller than the Death Star, they were still much bigger than any other warship before them, a fact which would by itself often keep people from fighting. Which, in Tarkin's words made it possible to ''"Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself"''. In the end, the doctrine backfired when people, instead of becoming fearful, got angry over what the Death Star could do--and did. Textbook misreading of ''ThePrince''.

* Basically the entire teaching that [[{{Grenadier}} Tendou Rushuna]] abides to. Her tactics involve disarming enemies in such an awesome display of skill that the enemy would be so utterly discouraged to continue fighting they would simply surrender even with no lives lost. The tactic served her so well that basically during the entire run of the manga/anime, her kill count is essentially zero despite having skills rivaling that of [[{{Trigun}} Vash]].

* In ''Fail-Safe,'' a political scientist (Walter Matthau) recommends that the president (Henry Fonda) allow an accidental nuclear strike to proceed, since it will cause the Soviets to simply surrender as a matter of ruthless efficiency.
* In ''The Last of the Mohicans''-- as well as in the actual incident that inspired it-- the French commander offers the British fort a chance to surrender; they accept, knowing that they don't have a chance against the French mortars.

* In ''StarWars'' the idea with the Death Star is not so much to use it, but to use the fear of what it could do to hold rebellious systems in line. In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse the Tarkin Doctrine is fully explained, referencing experiences with the Star Destroyers. While much smaller than the Death Star, they were still much bigger than any other warship before them, a fact which would by itself often keep people from fighting. Which, in Tarkin's words made it possible to ''"Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself"''. In the end, the doctrine backfired when people, instead of becoming fearful, got angry over what the Death Star could do--and did. Textbook misreading of ThePrince.
* BruceLee in EnterTheDragon describes his fighting style to an ArrogantKungFuGuy as "the art of fighting without fighting." Then proceeds to demonstrate it by tricking him into a tiny row-boat being dragged behind the ship.

* Inverted in the ''{{Discworld}}'' book ''Night Watch''. Vimes' realisation that he cannot win and his decision not to fight saves them all by persuading the mob to not destroy the station.

* Subverted in ''The Lord of the Rings,'' when Gandalf marches up to the Black Gate and demands that Sauron surrender; he wants Sauron to think that he has the Ring, and only someone with the Ring would be powerful enough to be so brazen. (This point is lost in the movie; despite that Merry and Pippin say that "the enemy thinks we have the Ring," there's no mention of Sauron later thinking that ''Gandalf or Aragorn'' having it-- only Aragorn having the sword of Elendil, which gives him no special power against Sauron's armies.

* In the VorkosiganSaga, Miles is faced with a situation where he has led his (relatively small) forces to charge headlong on the point where the action ''will'' be, if he's right. He considers, for a moment, what will happen if this wild move spooks the (unbelievably huge) opposing forces into believing their invasion plans are in jeopardy and, as a result, never carry them out. He concludes that, if that happens, he will have performed the perfect war of manoeuvre by his father's own definition...

* A real (And truly epic) example from Star Trek would be the TNG episode "Chain of Command", in particular part 2. Captain Jellico has Riker navigate a shuttlecraft through the dense nebula where the Cardassians are hiding, preparing an attack. Riker sets up a massive network of mines along the hulls of the Cardassian ships. They're forced to comply with Jellico's demands and leave without fighting.
* A season 1 episode of ''{{Babylon 5}}'' has Sinclair do this with a bunch of dock workers, who are striking because they are being treated unfairly by the government. Sinclair wants to help, but the gov orders him to follow the "Rush Act," which forces him to end the illegal strike "by any means necessary," including violence. Sinclair follows orders, accompanies his army of security personnel down to the dock workers, and [[spoiler: gives them the pay raise and safety updates they wanted; before the enactment of the Rush Act, he couldn't give them anything, because his hands were tied up by beaurocracy, but since he can now resolve the conflict "by any means necessary," he gives them the raises they deserve]].

* Commander Shepard in the first {{Mass Effect}} game catches a group of storehouse workers who are armed during the storming of a crimebosses hideout, and both groups are caught in a MexicanStandoff. One resolution to this is for Shepard to simply convince the workers that this would be a good time to leave.
** MassEffect and Mass Effect 2 have a lot of these with their dialogue and persuasion system.
* Kreia in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2:

* During World War II the Japanese never intended to invade the mainland of the US, and were intending to invoke this trope after Pearl Harbor. They only intended to neutralize the US Pacific fleet to prevent American intervention while they secured a defensive perimeter of island colonies so they could continue their main goal of exploiting the resources of Southeast Asia. This however backfired horribly (for them) as they were ones whose Pacific fleet ended up being neutralized. The American carriers being out of town at the time didn't help the Japanese cause.

* During World War II the Japanese never intended to invade the mainland of the US, and were intending to invoke this trope after Pearl Harbour. They only intended to neutralize the US Pacific fleet to prevent American intervention while they secured a defensive perimeter of island colonies so they could continue their main goal of exploiting the resources of Southeast Asia. This however backfired horribly (for them) as they were ones whose Pacific fleet ended up being neutralized. The American carriers being out of town at the time didn't help the Japanese cause.

** Their commanding Admiral [[AwakeningTheSleepingGiant saw it coming.]]

** Their commanding Admiral [[SleepingGiant saw it coming.]]

* [[spoiler:Kreia]] in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2: The Sith Lords'' has [[spoiler:''[[{{Chessmaster}} the entire game]]'' as an example of this to the Jedi Masters]] in order to [[spoiler:prove via The Exile that her views on The Force were correct and theirs were wrong]]. You can opt to become a SpannerInTheWorks by going dark side [[spoiler:and killing the Jedi Masters]]. [[spoiler:Kreia]] becomes quite pissed if you do it and break their plan (the rant on how you screwed it up reveals a good chunk of [[MindScrew what was going on]]).

* During the attack on Butane, Galatea calls Riboflavin out for not at least attempting this; they've got the Butanians at a seemingly hopeless disadvantage, and she favors simply scaring them into surrendering, to give them a bloodless victory. Riboflavin answers, "Bloodless victory? ''Where's the fun in that?!"'' She successfully leads a mutiny against him (well, a mutiny of the only other two people on the ship).

* Essentially this is what police negotiators WANT to happen, as the authorities will always outnumber the suspects in a siege like situation. Many times however this fails, as the suspects are extremely desperate.

* In ''StarWars'' the idea with the Death Star is not so much to use it, but to use the fear of what it could do to hold rebellious systems in line. In the StarWarsExpandedUniverse the Tarkin Doctrine is fully explained, referencing experiences with the Star Destroyers. While much smaller than the Death Star, they were still much bigger than any other warship before them, a fact which would by itself often keep people from fighting. Which, in Tarkin's words made it possible to ''"Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself"''. In the end, the doctrine backfired when people, instead of becoming fearful, got angry over what the Death Star could do--and did.

* TropeNamer is Sun Tzus ''TheArtOfWar'', of course. See the page quote. A big part of Sun Tzu's military philosophy is that fighting is a matter of last resort, and that it is far better to win by simply making it impossible for the opposing side to win (and, of course, to ensure they know it).

* [[spoiler:Kreia]] in ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2: The Sith Lords'' has [[spoiler:''[[{{Chessmaster}} the entire game]] as an example of this to [[spoiler:the Jedi Masters]] in order to [[spoiler:prove via The Exile that her views on The Force were correct and theirs were wrong]]. You can opt to become a SpannerInTheWorks by going dark side [[spoiler:and killing the Jedi Masters]]. [[spoiler:Kreia]] becomes quite pissed if you do it and break their plan (the rant on how you screwed it up reveals a good chunk of [[MindScrew what was going on]]).

** This troper heard that in Gulf War II, the U.S. [[InvokedTrope gave its colonels the mobile phone numbers of their Iraqi counterparts]].

* Not sure how reliable the source of this was, but supposedly in WWII some American forces from a series of art schools got some German units to surrender without resisting, by approaching them with a fake army (inflatable tanks, speakers playing tank noises and radio sounds, inflatable infantry and even inflatable artillery!
** Seems to me like [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Army that was a reliable source]]. Right down to the inflatable tanks, too! However, that was more misdirection, and is detailed in KansasCityShuffle.

* [[spoiler: IrresponsibleCaptainTylor in what can only be described as the greatest CrowningMomentOfAwesome in the entire series]]

* In ''StarWars'' the idea with the Death Star is not so much to use it, but to use the fear of what it could do to hold rebellious systems in line. In the ExpandedUniverse the Tarkin Doctrine is fully explained, referencing experiences with the Star Destroyers. While much smaller than the Death Star, they were still much bigger than any other warship before them, a fact which would by itself often keep people from fighting. Which, in Tarkin's words made it possible to ''"Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself"''. In the end, the doctrine backfired when people, instead of becoming fearful, got angry over what the Death Star could do--and did.