A method for co-operative thermal management of a number of independent electronic devices housed within a common enclosure that includes designating a priority number and measuring a temperature for each of the independent electronic devices. Next, for each of the independent electronic devices, the measured temperature is evaluated to determine if it exceeds a threshold value for the independent electronic device. If the measured temperature exceeds a threshold value, a count-down value is initialize to the designated priority number of the independent electronic device. Following which, the count-down value is evaluated to determine if it is equal to zero. If the count-down value is equal to zero, the independent electronic device is powered down. However, if the count-down value is not equal to zero, a specified time interval is allowed to expire before the count-down value is decremented and re-evaluated to determine if it is equal to zero.