Trope:Inter-Service Rivalry


 * "The Soviets are our a advesary. Our enemy is the Navy."
 * -Curtis LeMaz, General, US Air Force

In a perfect world, the various branches of a government (local, regional or central) should be able to cooperate and pull their resources together for the greater good.

The world is not perfect.

When it does not, one of the reasons usually is Interservice Rivalry, where at least two branches of the government don't work well together, sometimes openly opposing and working against each other. Usually if the leaders of said branches know each other, they can't let go of their past feelings and it intensifies the rivalry. Often in military fiction (and in real life as well), some amount of Interservice Rivalry will be encouraged by the higher-ups, to promote a competitive spirit but sometimes it can get out of hand.

Sometimes it is used by a dark Chessmaster leader to maintain control. That way if the army ever rebels against him, he can always call in the navy to fight for him.

Cases of Interservice Rivalry can cause Jurisdiction Frictionand Divided We Fall. Compare Right Hand Versus Left Hand. There is also Truth in Television to this.

Example

 * The Imperial military is chock full of rivalries:


 * ​The Imperial Army is competes fiercly with the Imperial Navy. On the one hand the Imperial Army is massive and way better funded than then the Imperial Navy. On the otherhand unlikely the army the Imperial Navy is far technologically superior to its peers and does not have a true competitor.
 * The Imperial Legions all compete amongst themselves for honor and glory. Troops for one legion tends to hate anyone they meet from a Legion that is not their own.
 * The I and V Legion's in particular have a strong rivalry.The I Legion is the far most famous one, and it doesn't hurt that it is under the personal command of the Emperor. The I legion is much more glorified, having a reputation for having the best troops and equipement, and generally being badass soldiers. The V Legion on the other hand has seen much more action, and is commanded by Javert Kannan, the head of the of the Imperial Military, and a commander badass himself, and generally sees much higher casaulties than the I. It doesn't help that Javert treats his legion like dirt. Nor does it help that while the I legion gets all the glorious jobs (like capturing Oured or taking down Sparklelord) the V gets the painfully difficult tasks (like invading Samarkand, or ISAF, or Leasath, all of which at the time were actually prepared for invasions.
 * Imperial Tropes from Directus itself have a rivalry with "colonial" troops such as those from Samarkand and Aurelia.