[TOMT] Economic theory about the optimal choice in an unregulated setting with adversaries?

I've heard of this economical theory which states that when you have adversaries in an unregulated environment, your optimal choice is to pre-emptively attack and kill any other agents in the setting.

So if you have competing tribes and there's no global repercussion for attacking a tribe, it is best to attack the other tribes first or else you will suffer the same fate.

In a contemporary context, when it came to, say Prohibition, it was optimal to wipe out other gangs so you had no regulation on quality or price on alcohol.

Does this idea sound familiar to anyone, and if so what is it called? I may not be describing it entirely correctly, and Google-fu doesn't seem to turn up anything meaningful.