Word: commandeering
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Yeltsin is sometimes said to be presiding over the Second Russian Revolution. But that understates and oversimplifies the challenge facing him and his people. Russia is actually in the throes of three transformations at once: from totalitarianism to democracy, from a command economy to a free market, and from a multinational empire to a nation-state. Any one of these would be arduous enough all by itself. Undertaking three revolutions simultaneously with so little warning and preparation has overloaded the circuits...
...internal logic. Moscow decreed the production of every tank, shoe and potato; every working-age person was supposed to have a job; and prices were stable. If the end result was not exactly according to plan -- a long-drawn-out failure, in fact -- at least the command system offered a coherent vision of what the plan...
...will keep their sexuality largely private. They will simply stop living in fear that someone may find out and cost them their future. Those who might wish to be flamboyant or confrontational would probably not prosper regardless of sexual preference, because their personalities do not suit a top-down command structure. For the most part, gays seek to serve for the same patriotic and pragmatic reasons that heterosexuals do, and they tend to feel as deeply committed to the military culture as to their sexuality...
...epigraph of the book's first chapter quoted Lincoln's reason for relieving General John Fremont of his Missouri command during the Civil War: "His cardinal mistake is that he isolates himself and allows nobody to see him," Lincoln wrote. "That's it," said Clinton as he drove. "The key to being an effective political leader is getting around. Lincoln was always out and about picking up information. He wasn't a prisoner in the White House. He was one of the few Presidents to regularly visit working sessions of the Congress. I do that too, with the legislature here...
When junior Co-Captain Jennifer Garcia strides onto the court exuding command and self-assurance, it is easy to forget that she is the shortest member of the Harvard women's volleyball team...