When some signal is desperately needed by both parties and both parties know it, even a poor signal and a discriminatory one may command recognition, in default of any other. Once the contingency is upon them, their interests, which originally diverged in the play of threats and deterrents, substantially coincide in the desperate need for a focus of agreement.

XREF: Relates to Schelling's focal point theory — the notion that shared context can coordinate divergent parties toward common ground.

Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, loc. 201