Wars seem to be the ultimate throw of the dice. My own feeble knowledge covers, it seems, only wars that have ultimately surprised all participants.
Are there any wars that turned out how one of the participants planned? Policy actually successfully implemented through violence.
If there are reasons why they were able to do this, it would be interesting to know why too.
Bismarck started a war with Austria (the Austro-Prussian War) that went exactly as he planned it (though some historians say that he was more of an opportunist than the master planner he claimed to be).
Bismarck first started an alliance with Austria to defeat Denmark and take Schleswig-Holstein. Austria then disagreed over the administration of the conquered territory, giving Bismarck the pretense he needed to invade and defeat Austria. This put an end to the "Greater Germany" model for German Unification (which would have had Austria as part of it) and led to the "Lesser Germany" model under which Prussia unified Germany. Bismarck, as a Prussian wanted the latter, and this war and the later Franco-Prussian War cemented it.