Word: strongman
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...Congress. Withdrawing support from Baghdad would prompt it to turn to Iran - even China might be willing to kick in a few billion if that could buy an edge in oil deals. Nor does there appear to be any plausible scenario for replacing al-Maliki. The days when a strongman regime might be able to contain Shi'ite aspirations are long gone: today's Iraqi army is predominantly Shi'ite, after all, and the Shi'ite street - answering to Sadr and Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani - could make Iraq ungovernable by any regime that lacks their consent...
...year-old Obasanjo tried to rewrite the constitution to allow himself a third term as President. When that failed, he nominated Yar'Adua, 56 - until then a nonentity - as his People's Democratic Party candidate, and unleashed anti-corruption investigators on his rivals. A handover of power from a strongman to his puppet in a rigged election is hardly conducive to democratic legitimacy, or stability...
...number of senior Fatah people the wrong way. Afterwards, at a meeting of Fatah's Central Committee, according to a Committee member who was in attendance, Abbas was fiercely criticized for "engaging in a public relations stunt" and accused of "helping [Olmert] without getting anything in return." Fatah strongman Mohammed Dahlan commands his own following, as does another of Yasir Arafat's ex-capos, Marwan Barghouti, despite being in jail. More recently, another faction, this one led by former Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei, has also become more vocal in its opposition to Abbas, worrying that by rubbing shoulders with Olmert...
...Indonesia is undergoing a spiritual revolution. Since the 1998 fall of strongman Suharto, who during his 32-year rule suppressed not only political freedom but any faith that could challenge his authority, the country has re-embraced its religiosity. In 2004, Indonesia held its first-ever direct presidential election, shattering the notion that Islam and democracy are incompatible. Yet that same open system of politics has encouraged a flowering of conservative religious thought and allowed the rise of homegrown terrorists, threatening the country's reputation as a model of moderate Islam...
...Poland that led the overthrow of communism; the way liberation theology in Latin America helped pave the way for new democracies; how Desmond Tutu and the South African churches served to inspire victory over apartheid; how "People Power" joined with the priests and bishops to bring down down Philippine strongman Ferdinand Marcos; how the Dalai Lama keeps hope alive for millions of Tibetans; and, today, how the growing Evangelical and Pentecostal churches of the global South are mobilizing to addresse the injustices of globalization...