The practice of pushing a dangerous situation to the edge of disaster to achieve your goals, often used in politics or negotiations.
From 'brink' (edge of a precipice, from Middle English) plus 'manship' (skill or practice), popularized in the 1950s during Cold War politics to describe the strategy of threatening nuclear war.
This word was born during the Cuban Missile Crisis—politicians literally played a game of chicken with nuclear weapons, and journalists needed a word for this terrifying strategy. It's a perfect example of how language evolves to describe new historical dangers.
'Brinksmanship' explicitly uses 'smanship,' the variant form of '-manship,' maintaining gendered language in a strategic concept with no inherent gender basis.
Use 'brinksmanship' as accepted terminology. Acknowledge that political and military negotiators employing this tactic represent all genders.
["brinkmanship (original)","edge-walking"]
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