(brĭngks'-)
n.
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.
brinkmanship
Dictionary:
brink·man·ship (brĭngk'mən-shĭp')  also brinks·man·ship
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| 5min Related Video: brinkmanship |
| Word Origin: brinkmanship |
Origin: 1956
How do you fight a war without going to war? After ten years of Cold War (1946) with the Soviet Union, that was a paradox we were still trying to resolve. But President Eisenhower's secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, had no doubts about it. "The ability to get to the verge without getting into the war is the necessary art," Dulles said in an interview early in 1956. "If you cannot master it, you inevitably get into war. If you try to run away from it, if you are scared to go to the brink, you are lost."
There was good reason to be scared. Both the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were armed and dangerous. The United States had tested its first hydrogen bomb in 1952, the U.S.S.R. in 1953. Both sides had long-range aircraft to deliver the bombs. Neither side was deterred by the fear of "nuclear winter" (1983), an idea whose time would not come for thirty more years. In classrooms, the best we could do for our schoolchildren was to hold "duck and cover" drills so they could practice shielding themselves from the flash and blast of a distant atomic bomb.
Not every American favored going to the brink. Former governor Adlai Stevenson of Illinois, twice nominated as the Democratic candidate to run against Eisenhower, criticized Dulles in a speech in February 1956: "No, we hear the Secretary of State boasting of his brinkmanship--the art of bringing us to the edge of the nuclear abyss."
That word brinkmanship was modeled on the "gamesmanship" of Stephen Potter's 1947 book, The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship or the Art of Winning Games Without Really Cheating. The sporting and humorous connotations of the suffix -manship applied to such a serious subject imply that the practitioner of brinkmanship is playing with catastrophe. Though the cold war is over, high-risk politics are not, and brinkmanship remains a vivid word to describe them.
| Political Dictionary: brinkmanship |
Usually associated with the Cold War practice of the superpowers wherein either might precipitate a crisis involving a potential nuclear holocaust (‘going to the brink’) in the hope that the adversary would make concessions on the issue in question (e.g. the 1961 crisis over Berlin or the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis). By analogy the term may include any high-stakes political ‘gamesmanship’, particularly in international politics.
— Geoffrey R. D. Underhill
| Politics: brinkmanship |
The policy of a nation that pushes a dangerous situation to the limits of safety (the “brink”) before pulling back; an aggressive and adventurous foreign policy.
| Wikipedia: Brinkmanship |
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Brinkmanship is the practice of pushing a dangerous situation to the verge of disaster in order to achieve the most advantageous outcome. It occurs in international politics, foreign policy, labour relations, and (in contemporary settings) in military strategy involving the threatened use of nuclear weapons.
This maneuver of pushing a situation to the brink succeeds by forcing the opposition to back down and make concessions. This might be achieved through diplomatic maneuvers by creating the impression that one is willing to use extreme methods rather than concede. During the Cold War, the threat of nuclear force was often used as such an escalating measure. Adolf Hitler also used brinkmanship during his rise to power.
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Origins
Brinkmanship is the ostensible escalation of threats in order to achieve one's aims. Originally the term brinkmanship was coined by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles under the Eisenhower administration, during the Cold War. Eventually, the threats involved might 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, as the escalation of threats of nuclear war is mutually suicidal.
Dangers
The dangers of brinkmanship as a political or diplomatic tool can be understood as a slippery slope: In order for brinkmanship to be effective, the threats used are continuously escalated. However, a threat is not worth anything unless it is credible; at some point, the aggressive party may have to back up its claim to prove its commitment to action.
The chance of things sliding out of control is also often used as a tool of brinkmanship, because it can provide credibility to an otherwise incredible threat. For example, Kennedy was not willing to start a nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis, but he was willing to take actions that risked the accidental start of a nuclear war. Pioneering game theorist Thomas Schelling called this "the threat that leaves something to chance"[1] -- if Kennedy had said "If you station your warheads in Cuba, we start a shooting war and exterminate human life on this planet" nobody would have believed him, but instead Kennedy ordered a naval quarantine. Until the crisis ended, there was a continual risk of the accidental outbreak of nuclear war, for example, when an unknown Soviet anti-aircraft battery commander shot down an American U-2 surveillance plane without authorization. With U.S. forces on high alert, this single, unauthorized action could have prompted an attack on the Cuban bases, which might have quickly escalated into nuclear exchanges. In summary, Kennedy's actions created an ongoing elevated risk of an accidental nuclear exchange, with the hope that the Soviets would back down from positioning missiles in Cuba in order to reduce the risk Kennedy had created.
The British intellectual Bertrand Russell compared nuclear brinkmanship to the game of chicken.[2] The principle between the two is the same, to create immense pressure in a situation until one person or party backs down.
See also
References
- ^ Schelling, Thomas, The Strategy of Conflict, copyright 1960, 1980, Harvard University Press, ISBN 0674840313.
- ^ Russell, Bertrand W. (1959) Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare London: George Allen & Unwin, p30: "Since the nuclear stalemate became apparent, the governments of East and West have adopted the policy which Mr. Dulles calls 'brinksmanship.' This is a policy adapted from a sport which, I am told, is practiced by some youthful degenerates. This sport is called 'Chicken!'"
External links
- An analysis of brinkmanship tactics used during the Cuban missile crisis
- Tongil Korea Net: Ridiculous Are Western Media’s Talk about DPRK’s “Brinkmanship Tactics” Commentary by Korean Central News Agency, February 22, 2003.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
| Translations: Brinkmanship |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - legen med ilden
Nederlands (Dutch)
hoog spel spelen (m.n. politiek)
Français (French)
n. - art d'aller jusqu'aux limites du possible
Deutsch (German)
n. - Politik am Rande des Abgrunds
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (πολιτικοί) ακροβατισμοί
Italiano (Italian)
politica del rischio calcolato
Português (Portuguese)
n. - estratégia (f) de realizar ações arriscadas até o limite da catástrofe (Pol.)
Русский (Russian)
умение балансировать на грани возможного
Español (Spanish)
n. - política arriesgada o en la cuerda floja
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - konsten att föra en politik till randen av krig
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
边缘政策
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 邊緣政策
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 일촉측발의 상태까지 밀어붙이는 정책
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) فن أو سياسه اتباع سياسه خطرة لحافه الحرب
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - הליכה על הסף
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Word Origin. America in So Many Words, by David K.Barnhart and Allan A. Metcalf. Copyright © 1997 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Political Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Politics. Copyright © 1996, 2003 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Politics. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Edited by E.D. Hirsch, Jr., Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil. Copyright © 2002 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Disarmament: A Public Opinion Poll (1983 Culture & Society Film)
- Bill Clinton
- Carl Fredrik Reutersw?rd (art)
- Charles E. Wilson
