Word: brinkmanship
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...foreign policy. The treaty, whose final details are being hammered out in Geneva this month, has emerged as the centerpiece of U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. has groped at straws in an attempt to create a stable world order since World War II: John Foster Dulles tried brinkmanship, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson foundered in Vietnam, and Henry Kissinger sought a vague and cynical "stable structure of peace." So far, Jimmy Carter's conception of foreign policy has been elusive and inconsistent: he first tried "linkage" and strong human rights pronouncements. He then invited the Soviets into the Middle East peace...
Such maneuvers and threats are partly genuine concern molded by experience, but they are also partly brinkmanship. The Syrians are now in no position to force a confrontation with Israel; they are too involved in Lebanon. Syrian units have moved no nearer the border than Zahrani, 30 miles to the north, near Sidon, to protect the oil refinery there, which has now resumed operation. Last week, Damascus quietly renewed the Golan Heights peace agreement with Israel for another six months...
...trackside in Montreal's ribbed, concrete Olympic Stadium last week, the XXI Olympiad had already produced one record. For the first time since the modern Games began in 1896, a host country had imposed its own foreign policy on the event. The result was some indecorous sports brinkmanship that forced the angry withdrawal of a clearly ill-treated team from the island Republic of China, further strained U.S.-Canadian relations and left much of the remaining world bothered about what a West German newspaper called "a dangerous and discouraging precedent." Even many Canadians were unhappy with their Prime Minister...
...Only one country might endanger the present stability in the Middle East. That country is Syria. I think the main purpose of Syria in May of this year [when the mandate expires] will be to play brinkmanship and threaten war for the sake of extricating gains. But I have to say this with certain reservations because logic was not the dominant factor in the behavior of Syria...
Bitter Feud. Assad does not want another Middle East war so soon after 1973 (see box), and is testing diplomatic alternatives while keeping up his military guard. His brinkmanship act over the U.N. mandate last week was in part intended to show the world that Syria plans to regain all of the Golan Heights. Syria has refused to rebuild the ruined city of Quneitra, the ancient Golan capital given up by Israel in the 1974 disengagement agreement. Syrian officials delight in showing foreign visitors the remains of buildings bulldozed by the Israelis before they left...