Basic Trope: A high-ranking official refuses to recognize that a threat exists and that they have to do so something about that.
- Straight: The evil Emperor Evulz is threatening the benevolent Republic of Troperia, and the General Bob wants outright action to stop him while he's vulnerable. However, President Alice doesn't think that Evulz would actually go ahead with the invasion, and so refuses to authorize Bob's plans. Evulz, of course, later invades and easily defeats Troperia, partially because of their lack of military preparedness.
- Exaggerated: Alice responds to Bob's pleas by actually decreasing military spending, spreading propaganda that Evulz is on their side (this despite Evulz having made several public speeches and statements in which he very unambiguously has declared his intent to invade and annex Troperia at the first convenient opportunity, enslave and/or kill its citizens, plunder its riches, and destroy its culture) and generally doing the exact opposite of what needs to be done.
- Downplayed: President Alice doesn't think that Evulz is yet ready to begin an invasion, before an assassin sent by Evulz attacks her.
- Justified:
- Evulz has Alice under More than Mind Control.
- Emperor Evulz has infiltrators in Alice's government, who quash reports of his actions and insist they are lies.
- Alice feels the need to go through the "official channels" before she can make a move.
- President Alice has a case of Good Cannot Comprehend Evil (or perhaps, more accurately, Pragmatic Cannot Comprehend Evil). She genuinely believes that Emperor Evulz is, at the end of the day, simply another politician, and therefore sees his frequent public speeches about rearmament and threats against his neighbors merely as political posturing. After all, Alice knows that wars are a horrible waste of life and resources, and assumes that Evulz shares this view beneath what she is convinced is merely his public persona; so there is no way he will actually carry out the invasion he has repeatedly threatened to do, right?
- Alice has to put up a front that she doesn't see Evulz as a threat, as she doesn't currently have the means to fight back — she suspects that, if she speaks out, Evulz will be angered and attack even sooner, eliminating any window of time that she could properly prepare. No good comes of Bullying a Dragon when your armor's still in the forge.
- Inverted:
- Alice recognizes the threat that Evulz poses, but can't get anything done because her subordinates, including General Bob, don't think Evulz is enough of a threat to justify military action.
- General Bob is paranoid and delusional, and thinks that Prime Minister Edward of neighboring Wikitopia is actually Emperor Evulz. Alice doesn't act because she can see quite well that Edward is no threat.
- General Bob doesn't want to attack Evulz just yet, but President Alice is spoiling for a fight and orders an attack on the Evil Empire without much of a plan beyond that.
- Subverted:
- Alice is skeptical, but she listens to Bob and considers acting.
- Alice and Bob have been feigning the rift between themselves. By pretending to ignore Bob's warnings, Alice gets Evulz to think she is off guard when she is quite prepared.
- Bob assumes Alice is simply passively ignoring Evulz, when she is actively aiding him and his invasion of her own country.
- Alice is being the rational and Only Sane Woman. She knows about Emperor Evulz' resources and how it will damage him if he attacks her country, so she will not waste excess resources for an emotional response. Bob is just being too gung-ho and emotional in accusing her of being too passive and ignorant, and he gets arrested as a result.
- Double-Subverted:
- Then she changes her mind upon listening to her minister, Lady Charlotte, argue against it.
- Alice misinterprets one of Bob's signals and calls for her bodyguards to stand down. Evulz' assassins kill her shortly afterwards.
- Alice has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and stops helping Evulz ... but she goes from that to letting him raze Troperia rather than fighting him.
- Alice is Instantly Proven Wrong; she actually underestimates Evulz' resources or even his strategy (see the Exploited section). Or, Evulz simply doesn't give a fuck about his resources; he'll attack Troperia with minimum resources and win if he damn pleases. Bob ends up as the Ignored Expert.
- Parodied: Alice doesn't listen to Bob because she literally has her head stuck in a bowl of sand.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice cannot make up her mind on what course of action to take.
- Averted: Alice takes Bob seriously and acts to overthrow Evulz, preventing him from doing anything against Troperia.
- Invoked: Alice rubbishes the idea of fighting Evulz in favor of negotiations.
- Enforced: The writer wants President Alice to be a nervous and reluctant leader.
- Lampshaded: "Madam President, we can't sit here and expect some miracle will happen!"
- Exploited:
- Evulz spreads propaganda of Alice's government having a habit of this so the populace won't notice that he's actually infiltrated it.
- Evulz pretends to be a struggling, not-so-strong Emperor, so Alice will think that she doesn't need to bother with Evulz and ignore him. When she least expects it, he strikes.
- Defied: Alice is skeptical about Bob's claim, but Charlotte realizes that Bob has a point and persuades Alice to take Bob seriously.
- Discussed: "Alice couldn't take action if she was next to a pool and her pants were on fire. I think I'm going to threaten to resign if she pooh-poohs any more of my ideas."
- Conserved: "Why does President Alice think we could deal peacefully with Evulz? Such a deal would fall through any second!"
- Deconstructed: Alice and Charlotte actually know just how much of a threat Evulz is, and that they don't stand a chance against him. She'd rather let Troperia enjoy the last of its life while it can.
- Reconstructed: Bob decides that Troperia should at least go out with a Last Stand, and despite all odds against them, they ultimately claim victory in their final battle against Evulz, and Alice is left to realize with everything that's still standing that she was worrying even the least bit too much about their future.
- Implied: Bob talks about how he can't get hold of Alice or how she's dismissed his warnings about the threat from Evulz.
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