> Use these underlying power dynamics to control the agenda
How did Stalin do this, exactly? What topic did he fight to avoid?
> If you’ve ever been an A student in a group project with a C student (or vice versa), you know this game.
Know what game?
If you care less about the consequences of your action than the other part, you get an advantage. This is not really recommended as a negotiation strategy in the long run (it only works once, and the other person is now your enemy), but it's good to know it can happen.
The C student will take any grade C and up and strives to do as little as possible whilst not pissing off the A student to go ballistic and report you to the professor.
Generally this is referred to as brinksmanship. The philosophy of brinksmanship is basically that when a situation is stable it is difficult to change. Takeing it to the the brink with chaos means you may be able to settle the chaos more in your favor.
The problem with it is that it's an awful long term strategy. In terms of game theory it's essentially the "defection" strategy, and negative sum.
In fact much of this blog posting seems to me like it could just as well be titled "a sociopath's guide"