Word: chessboard
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Vance came into office with a far more coherent, sensible and innovative vision of America's challenge than was usually acknowledged. His most cherished goal was for the U.S. to learn to deal with Third World nations on their own terms rather than as pawns on the strategic chessboard. He wanted to develop a foreign policy that would allow the U.S. to accommodate itself to revolutionary change rather than always finding itself among the losers...
...everything about the piano, he goes his own way. There was, for instance, the time he closeted himself to prepare for an important concert. Friends, hearing no music, opened his door to investigate. He was seated at the piano, but the lid was closed. On it rested a chessboard on which he was intently playing against himself...
...example, Pakistan was a triple target for American pressure: the U.S. was working to thwart the country's nuclear aspirations, goading the military government to restore democracy, and withholding military supplies. Now U.S. policymakers look at Pakistan as a vital and vulnerable piece on the strategic chessboard, and they are muting their civics lectures and reversing their arms-sale policy accordingly...
Perhaps the most profound development, in the view of many specialists, is that the Middle East alignment has been altered. Says Harvard Professor of Government Nadav Safran: "The whole chessboard has been changed by the move of one of the major pieces on that board-Egypt." This move significantly reduces the chances of yet another war in the region. Explains American University President Joseph Sisco, who was the State Department's chief Middle East adviser under Henry Kissinger: "Without Egyptian participation, war is simply not a viable Arab option at this point. The treaty thus deepens the irreversibility...
Addressing the military aspect of such a strategy, Luttwak suggested "putting some more forces back on the East-West chessboard. We should not do it with pawns such as ground troops but with queens and bishops, like high-technology weapons." Agreeing with this somewhat, Hyland nonetheless wondered whether such a move would be politically feasible. He said that "we Americans do not like long, protracted struggles or conflicts. So we are constantly driven to find some simplistic solutions-SALT, détente and others-to the problem. But there is no easy or quick substitute for being prepared to confront...