обозначать свою позицию(Obama generally starts talking tough only to draw a line in the sand, erase it and then keep conceding ground to his opponents until they get most of what they want. iVictorr)
рубеж(idiomatic) a defining moment, a cutoff point. WT. a temporary boundary marker which is not to be crossed and which if erased can be redrawn dictionary.comAlexander Demidov)
