Brinkmanship
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Brinkmanship (also brinksmanship) is the indication by a nation that it will do anything it needs to defend its interests. One dictionary defines it:
- 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.[1]
The word is associated with John Foster Dulles, Eisenhower's secretary of state. It tended to be used by his critics, with the implication that Dulles was a reckless sabre-rattler, particularly of nuclear sabres. Adlai Stevenson, for example, chided Dulles for "boasting of his brinkmanship—the art of bringing us to the edge of the nuclear abyss."