brinkmanship
a high-risk game
TRANSLATION
brinkmanship = Politik des äußersten Risikos, risikobereite Politik, gewagte Politik, waghalsige Politik, Spiel mit dem Feuer
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
“There is solid evidence that Russia is engaging in a bold BRINKMANSHIP game over Ukraine, using the logic of threat to create strategic ambiguity about a potential military invasion. Its goal is to force Western concessions on Ukraine in particular, and to obtain strategic carte blanche in the post-Soviet area more generally.”
Dumitru Minzarari - Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) 16.12.2021
Did you
know?
brinkmanship
noun
- the practice, especially in international politics, of seeking advantage by creating the impression that one is willing and able to push a highly dangerous situation to the limit rather than concede
The American Heritage Dictionary
- the activity, especially in politics, of trying to get what you want by saying that if you do not get it, you will do something dangerous
Cambridge Dictionary
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ORIGIN
“Brinkmanship” dates from 1956 and was probably coined by Adlai Stevenson in his criticism of the philosophy described as “going to the brink” in an interview with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles under the Eisenhower administration, during the Cold War.
The assumption was that the threats involved would become so huge as to be unmanageable at which point both sides are likely to back down.
This was the case during the Cold War with the threat of nuclear war likely to lead to Mutually Assured Destruction, appropriately shortened: “M.A.D.”
In 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis presented an example in which opposing leaders, namely John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev, continually issued warnings, with increasing force, about impending nuclear exchanges, without necessarily validating their statements.
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MADMAN THEORY
The madman theory is a political theory commonly associated with US President Richard Nixon’s foreign policy. Nixon and his administration tried to make the leaders of hostile Communist Bloc nations think he was irrational and volatile. According to the theory, those leaders would then avoid provoking the United States, fearing an unpredictable American response.
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SYNONYMS
bluster, BRINKMANSHIP, disguisement, manoeuvring (UK), maneuvering (US), masking, misrepresentation, playing with fire, politicking, politics, smoke-screen, strategem, tactics
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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:
“If negotiations collapse and the parties resort to BRINKMANSHIP, things can quickly spiral out of control.”
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