This time, however, the plan backfired. Syria s Sunni population, inspired by the revolutions in other Arab countries and outraged by the regime s brutality, simply stopped being afraid a potentially game changing development for Arab authoritarianism.

This time, however, the plan backfired. Syria s Sunni population, inspired by the revolutions in other Arab countries and outraged by the regime s brutality, simply stopped being afraid 160 a potentially game changing development for Arab authoritarianism.

Indeed, fearing the popularity of Lee Teng hui, who ran in the 1996 presidential election on a pro independence platform, China s People s Liberation Army actually fired missiles close to the nearby coast of Keelung. But this saber rattling backfired.

The Algerian secularists strategy of exclusion, fraud, cheating, and gerrymandering backfired badly Islamists were perceived as victims, while secularists with some exceptions were cast as unprincipled opportunists. Enforcing a secular constitution before elections does not guarantee a secular outcome.

Initially, the US backed Maliki in order to keep the Sadrist bloc from gaining a share of power. However, that has now backfired, since the Sadrists are the only group other than Maliki s coalition of Shia parties that supports him.

Initially, the US backed Maliki in order to keep the Sadrist bloc from gaining a share of power. However, that has now backfired, since the Sadrists are the only group other than Maliki s coalition of Shia parties that supports him.

Rather than offering to do away with its cotton subsidies, America offered to open up American markets to cotton imports an essentially meaningless public relations move that quickly backfired. Owing to its huge subsidies, America exports cotton, and it would import little even if formal barriers are removed.

In 2011, the government, fearing contagion from Tunisia and Egypt, where long established dictatorships had just been toppled, responded to the spread of protests by public sector workers by raising their salaries by 100 retroactively to 2008. But the plan backfired protests intensified, with other workers demonstrating for similar benefits and railing against the inflation that the move engendered.