Word: clouts
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...country's traditional oligarchy is made up of a dozen families that have intermarried for generations to, as they say, "keep the blood pure." But as those families have grown, migrated and diversified in recent generations, their collective clout as a social elite has weakened. Today, an oligarchic last name no longer guarantees its bearer the influence or money once attached...
...late 1970s the genre had virtually bit the dust. Natural western stars might very occasionally be able to get on a horse and shoot it out--like Eastwood in Unforgiven, Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves and Open Range--but only through an expenditure of their clout...
Major world powers, however, are subject to major world campaigns. With China's growing clout and visibility has come an increased sense that it should adhere to the highest standards of international conduct. And activists have been able to use the Games as a way of holding China to account. That has been done most obviously in the case of Darfur. Critics say Beijing's support for the government of Sudan--where China is the biggest investor in the growing oil industry as well as its biggest customer, importing about two-thirds of the country's crude production last year...
...presidency. "The hope is that Musharraf will continue to influence policy in the war on terror as President," says the official. That may be wishful thinking. Lieut. General Hamid Gul, a former head of Pakistani intelligence, says the Americans are "naive" for thinking that Musharraf will have any clout once he steps down as military chief or that Bhutto will be able to control the army as Prime Minister. "The Pakistani army is a one-man show," he says. "Whoever is chief gets to call the shots ... no civilian leader can tell them what...
...conservative supporters, the Guard's economic clout is neither new nor troublesome. Iran's constitution authorizes the military to play a peacetime economic role, and with the extensive engineering resources it amassed during the eight-year war with Iraq, it is only fitting, the thinking goes, for the Guard to run a vast financial empire reputedly worth billions of dollars. But to reformists, the Guard is to blame for the poor performance of Iran's economy, as well as its tattered relations with the international community. "There are elements within the IRGC [the acronym for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps...