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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
Foreign policy

A state's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors....
 and (in contemporary settings) in military strategy
Military strategy

Military strategy is a policy implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal s. Derived from the Greek language strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops....
 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.






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Cubacrisis 17 Oct 1962
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
Foreign policy

A state's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors....
 and (in contemporary settings) in military strategy
Military strategy

Military strategy is a policy implemented by military organizations to pursue desired Strategic goal s. Derived from the Greek language strategos, strategy when it appeared in use during the 18th century, was seen in its narrow sense as the "art of the general", 'the art of arrangement' of troops....
 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
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
, the threat of nuclear force was often used as such an escalating measure. Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler

Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born Germany politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party....
 also used brinksmanship during his rise to power.

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
United States Secretary of State

The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the President's United States Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in United States presidential line of succession and United States order of precedence....
 John Foster Dulles
John Foster Dulles

John Foster Dulles served as United States Secretary of State under President of the United States Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1959. He was a significant figure in the early Cold War era, advocating an aggressive stance against communism around the world....
 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
Nuclear war

Nuclear warfare is battle in which nuclear weapons are used.Nuclear war may also refer to:*Nuclear War *Nuclear War *Nuclear War, an album by Sun Ra...
 is mutually suicidal.

Dangers

The dangers of brinkmanship as a political or diplomatic tool can be understood as a slippery slope
Slippery slope

In debate or rhetoric, a slippery slope is a classical informal fallacy. A slippery slope argument states that a relatively small first step inevitably leads to a chain of related events culminating in some significant impact, much like an object given a small push over the edge of a slope sliding all the way to the bottom....
: 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 further one goes, the greater the chance of things sliding out of control. The chance that things may go out of control is a key element in providing credibility to this threat, e.g., Kennedy was not willing to start a nuclear war over the Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis

File:EXCOMM meeting, , 29 October 1962.jpgFile:Jupiter IRBM.jpgThe Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation between the United States, the Soviet Union, and Cuba that occurred in the early 1960s during the Cold War....
, but he was willing to risk the start of a nuclear war which was a more believable threat.

The British intellectual Bertrand Russell
Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell, Order of Merit , Fellow of the Royal Society , was a British people philosopher, mathematical logic, mathematician, historian, advocate for social reform, and pacifism....
 compared nuclear brinkmanship to the game of chicken
Chicken (game)

The game of Chicken, also known as the Hawk-Dove or Snowdrift game, is an influential model of conflict for two players in game theory....
. The principle between the two is the same, to create immense pressure in a situation until one person or party backs down.

See also

  • Balance of terror
    Balance of terror

    The phrase "balance of terror" is usually used in reference to the nuclear weapon arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union during Cold War....
  • Game theory
    Game theory

    Game theory is a branch of applied mathematics that is used in the social sciences , biology, engineering, political science, international relations, computer science , and philosophy....
  • International crisis
    International crisis

    An international crisis is a crisis between states. There are many definitions of an international crisis. Snyder "...a sequence of interactions between the governments of two or more sovereign states in severe conflict, short of actual war, but involving the perception of a dangerously high probability of war"....
  • Massive retaliation
    Massive retaliation

    Massive retaliation, also known as a massive response or massive deterrence, is a military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack....
  • Mutual assured destruction
    Mutual assured destruction

    Mutually assured destruction is a doctrine of military strategy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender....


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