So powerful people tend to be, not surprisingly, more assertive and more confident, more optimistic.

It is time for the Assembly to be more assertive within the mandate accorded it by the Charter.

In implementing the unitary United Nations concept, Member States would need to be far more assertive in guiding and setting the policy agenda of agencies.

The scope for fiscal stimulus is more limited than in 2009, but countries with sufficient fiscal room and available financing should maintain spending levels and preserve critical social and infrastructure programs. Countries with moderate inflation could be more assertive with monetary and exchange rate policy.

Others, however, see a Chinese strategy that is confused, contradictory, and paralyzed by competing bureaucratic interests. They point to the negative results of China s more assertive policies since the economic crisis of 2008.

Democracy remains a worthy and widespread goal, but it is important to distinguish the goal from the means used to attain it. There is a difference between assertive promotion and more gentle support of democratization.

A second obstacle to sustained recovery is the eurozone s bad neighborhood. Russia is becoming more assertive and aggressive in Ukraine, the Baltics, and even the Balkans (while sanctions against Russia have hurt many European economies).

So long as the EU continues to sway between integration and containment, it will continue to appear to the Kremlin as weak and directionless. That, in turn, will merely encourage Russia to become even more assertive.

If Sunnis triumph there, they may become more assertive in countries that have large Shia populations. It is not often recognized that Pakistan has the world s second largest Shia population, after Iran, with roughly 50 million adherents.

This was recognized by the DPJ, which would like Japan to play a more independent role, as a more equal ally, rather than a mere protectorate, of the US, and thus be a more assertive political player in Asia. Hence, the first symbolic step was to get the US to move its marines from Okinawa, an island that has carried the burden of a US military presence for much too long.

The revitalization of the General Assembly, the strengthening of the Economic and Social Council to play a more assertive role in development and the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission, the Human Rights Council and the Democracy Fund may be key reform proposals, but reform of this magnitude must be accompanied by a major overhaul of the management system.

At the heart of this process is the even touchier issue of whether the people who will take charge of the EU s main institutions should be strong leaders. In principle, everyone wants heavy hitters in practice, many national leaders resist the idea of a more independent and assertive team in Brussels.

More significant, Japan s leaders are now openly debating ways to transform the country s post World War II pacifism into a much more assertive nationalism. In fact, in August, the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force unveiled the helicopter destroyer Izumo, whose structure and capabilities resemble those of an aircraft carrier, with possible offensive applications.

Thailand's experience has taught us that, ultimately, developing nations can and should become equal and assertive partners in our own development.

The third development occurred in Japan, where the newly elected Liberal Democratic government of Shinzo Abe, commanding a two thirds parliamentary majority, is pressing the Bank of Japan to stimulate growth a discussion that looks set to evolve into something much more assertive.

If China becomes a bully in the Asia Pacific region, other countries will join the US to confront it. Indeed, that is why many of China s neighbors have strengthened their ties with the US since 2008, when China s foreign policy became more assertive.

Thus, China s rulers acted in character last December, when they cracked down on news organizations that were getting a bit too assertive.

Probably not, right? You want the person who's powerful and assertive and dominant, but not very stress reactive, the person who's laid back.

This assertive and high profile operation immediately established the visibility and authority of EUFOR and made a positive early impact both nationally and internationally.

But for years I denied this intuition, and so I became a Wall Street lawyer, of all things, instead of the writer that I had always longed to be partly because I needed to prove to myself that I could be bold and assertive too.

One reason is the continued division of the Korean Peninsula and the threat that a nuclear armed North Korea poses to its own people and its neighbors. China has added to regional tensions with a foreign policy including advancing territorial claims in the East and South China Seas that would be described diplomatically as assertive, and more bluntly as bullying.

A Chinese military posture that is too aggressive could produce a countervailing coalition among its neighbors, thereby weakening China s hard and soft power. In 2010, for example, as China became more assertive in its foreign policy toward its neighbors, its relations with India, Japan, and South Korea suffered.

As a result, UNOCI is developing a more assertive strategy aimed at preventing and curbing further cases of obstruction, which includes steps taken at the highest political and military levels and nation wide public information campaigns to better promote the role and mandate of the mission in Côte d'Ivoire.

So two minutes lead to these hormonal changes that configure your brain to basically be either assertive, confident and comfortable, or really stress reactive, and, you know, feeling sort of shut down. And we've all had the feeling, right?

As China accumulated economic and strategic clout, its neighbors benefited from its rapid GDP growth, which spurred their own economies. But, at some point in the last decade, China s leaders evidently decided that their country s moment had finally arrived its peaceful rise has since given way to a more assertive approach.

After the 2008 2009 financial crisis, as China recovered rapidly and resumed 10 annual economic growth, some Chinese officials and commentators urged a more assertive foreign policy to reflect China s new strength. Many mistakenly believed that the US was in decline, and that the crisis presented new strategic opportunities for China.

The absence of laws mandating force to block separatist activity has never stopped Chinese authorities from brutally persecuting individuals and groups who have called for an independent Tibet or Xinjiang. There is thus little reason to believe that a more explicitly assertive stance is necessary for dealing with the splittist government in Taipei.

There is a difference between assertive promotion and more gentle support of democratization. Avoiding coercion, premature elections, and hypocritical rhetoric should not preclude a patient policy that relies on economic assistance, behind the scenes diplomacy, and multilateral approaches to aid the development of civil society, the rule of law, and well managed elections.

Russia is not becoming assertive, aggressive, or imperial, as many observers claim. We are only claiming what is rightfully ours a place in the front row of international relations.

This prospect is hardly encouraging. If abuses and repression in the provinces continue no matter how attentive the central government, or how assertive the press might have become, what then?

They are more assertive in standing up for their right to education than the adults who are supposed to uphold that right. It was particularly encouraging to see hundreds of global youth ambassadors from 100 countries descend on New York recently to demand the right to education and to support the Bring Back Our Girls campaign in Nigeria.

A rising China, a resurgent Japan, an assertive Russia, and an anachronistic North Korea have added new complexities and uncertainties to the region. The latter s pursuit of nuclear arms is particularly worrying.

This four year strategy will result in the provision of much needed services (Crisis Management, Case Management, Assertive Community Treatment Teams and Early Intervention) to an additional 78,000 people by 2007 2008.

Everybody tells me to be more thoughtful. Well, I'd like to be more thoughtful.

With more resources earmarked even more could be done.

After the 2008 financial crisis, many Chinese expressed the mistaken belief that the US was in terminal decline, and that China should be more assertive particularly in pursuing its maritime claims in the South China Sea at the expense of America s allies and friends. During Obama s first year in office, his administration placed a high priority on cooperation with China, but Chinese leaders seemed to misread US policy as a sign of weakness.

You know that everybody thinks they should be eating more, and more, and more.

But it should also be thinking ahead about how it can demonstrate a stronger commitment to security, democracy, and prosperity in the European neighborhood. The most effective way of dealing with a newly assertive Russia will be for Europe to issue a collective refusal to accept a bipolar Europe of distinct Russian and EU spheres of influence.

Demanding a lot more will be more destructive than constructive.

There would be more democracy, less oppression more freedom, less terrorism more growth, less poverty.

First of all, it needs to be made more representative, more effective and more transparent.

Obama s foreign and defense policies have been assertive, to say the least, especially in the Middle East and the Pacific. He has sanctioned far more unmanned drone strikes than Bush did extended the security services intrusion into Americans privacy allowed the CIA to continue its rendition program approved trials of accused terrorists by flawed military tribunals and has not shut Guantánamo Bay.

Beyond the changes in France and the US, the decisive factor behind the possible reinvention of NATO is the transformation of the international system itself. Aside from the explosive situation in the Middle East and the threat of Islamist terrorism, the West is now confronted with the rise of Asia, the return of a more assertive Russia, and new energy and environmental challenges.

'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

'Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?