brinkmanship

brinkmanship
    n 1: the policy of pushing a dangerous situation to the brink of
         disaster (to the limits of safety)
    

brinkmanship \brink"man*ship\, brinksmanship \brinks"man*ship\n.
   [brink + -manship. (1956).]
   the policy or practise of pushing a dangerous situation to
   the brink of disaster (to the limits of safety), in order to
   achieve the most advantageous outcome; -- used especially of
   diplomatic maneuvers in crisis situations, and originally
   applied to the policies of John Foster Dulles under President
   Eisenhower.
   [WordNet 1.5 +PJC]
    

59 Moby Thesaurus words for "brinkmanship":
      Eisenhower Doctrine, Monroe Doctrine, Nixon Doctrine,
      Truman Doctrine, adventurousness, appeasement, audaciousness,
      audacity, balance of power, boldness, coexistence, colonialism,
      compromise, containment, courage fou, courting disaster,
      daredevilry, daredeviltry, daring, detente, deterrence, diplomacy,
      diplomatic, diplomatics, dollar diplomacy, dollar imperialism,
      expansionism, fire-eating, flirting with death, foolhardiness,
      foreign affairs, foreign policy, forwardness, going for broke,
      good-neighbor policy, harebrainedness, imperialism,
      internationalism, isolationism, manifest destiny, militarism,
      nationalism, neocolonialism, neutralism, nonresistance, open door,
      open-door policy, peace offensive, peaceful coexistence,
      playing with fire, preparedness, presumption, presumptuousness,
      shirt-sleeve diplomacy, shuttle diplomacy, spheres of influence,
      the big stick, tough policy, world politics