Word: brinkmanship
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...booster for Turkey and other allied preparations were meant not only to ensure a successful war effort but also to try to avert the battle by frightening Saddam into retreat. Bush's brinkmanship strategy assumes three things: 1) Saddam wants to survive, 2) he can change his mind if he thinks his survival depends on it, and 3) he will not act until the gun is at his head, with the hammer cocked and the trigger finger already squeezing...
That is why -- despite its veneer of banana-republic brinkmanship -- the current congressional revolt is a return to pre-Reaganite tradition. The President's weather-vane vacillation has forced the House to reaffirm its constitutional role as originator of taxation and spending measures. The result: the eruption of the long-suppressed ideological debate over the size and scope of the Federal Government...
Even before the OPEC meeting began, uncertainties generated by Iraq's brinkmanship had driven the average price of OPEC oil to $16.25 per bbl., from less than $14 per bbl. at the end of June. But because buyers have stocked up on cheap fuel in recent months, it will take some time before the new production cap shoves prices as far as the new $21 benchmark. That level may be difficult to sustain beyond the winter, when fuel demand rises naturally, as OPEC members with spare capacity are likely to press for new, higher quotas...
...Washington and Moscow, analysts felt that the most sensible course for Gorbachev is to back away from brinkmanship and begin negotiations with the Lithuanians, who have all along expressed their eagerness to talk. In a commentary in the Soviet weekly New Times, political columnist Leonid Mlechin wrote, "Cooler heads will not ignore the will of the Lithuanian voters and will start shaping up a mechanism of cooperation with Vilnius. Any option for resolving this problem with force will strengthen the position of those in the republics who believe it is useless to try to reach an agreement with Moscow...