Brinkmanship
Etymology
Coined around 1956 after U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles praised going "to the brink" of war; the critic Adlai Stevenson mocked the approach as "brinkmanship." Game theorists later analyzed it as a contest of nerve and credibility. It now names any high-stakes standoff, from debt-ceiling fights to labor disputes.
noun · /BRINGK-man-ship/
The tactic of pushing a dangerous confrontation to the edge of disaster to force the other side to back down.
What it names
A bargaining strategy that weaponizes shared risk — whoever can credibly tolerate the brink longer wins.
Example
The budget negotiation was pure brinkmanship, resolved minutes before the shutdown.
Related idea
Brinkmanship threatens sudden shared catastrophe to make the other side flinch, whereas attrition wins slowly by grinding down the opponent’s resources over time.