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: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.<ref>American Heritage Dictionary[http://www.bartleby.com/61/54/B0485400.html]</ref>
: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.<ref>American Heritage Dictionary[http://www.bartleby.com/61/54/B0485400.html]</ref>
The word is associated with [[John Foster Dulles]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|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."
The word is closely associated with [[John Foster Dulles]], [[Dwight D. Eisenhower|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."
The word "brinkmanship" recalls the word "gamesmanship," the light-hearted creation of humorist Stephen Potter, author of the 1947 book "Gamesmanship: The Art of Winning Games Without Actually Cheating," by various psychological attacks on the opponent. The implication was that Dulles was treating foreign diplomacy as if it were a game.
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