Word: interest
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...least Rasmussen knows politics. Nicknamed Prime Minister by schoolmates amused by his obsessive interest in the workings of government, Rasmussen went straight from university to parliament. He became known for a meticulous, almost robotic style. Danes didn't love him, but they respected that he got things done. As Prime Minister from 2001 until last April, Rasmussen pushed Denmark to the right by freezing tax increases and cutting immigration numbers, even as he safeguarded its liberal positions on issues like gay marriage and climate change. He oversaw the complex negotiations that led to the last big intake of new countries...
...Priority No. 2 for Rasmussen is Russia, which has always seen NATO's post-Cold War expansion as a threat to its own security. Rasmussen concedes that NATO needs to get better at explaining its intentions and convincing Moscow that there are areas of common interest - Afghanistan, ending the spread of weapons of mass destruction, piracy - on which the former adversaries can work together. In the long term he imagines a "true strategic partnership" between Russia and NATO. But he insists that the organization will remain open to new members - which potentially means Ukraine and Georgia, both of whom have...
...Persuading non-Americans that it is in their interest to do more in Afghanistan; finding common ground with Russia while conceding nothing to its neo-imperial ambitions - these are challenges that would daunt any politician. A keen runner and cyclist, Rasmussen has been known to invite Facebook friends (he has 34,636 of them) to exercise with him. He has remade his Facebook page in English, and says he wants to use it to give NATO a human face. There's nothing wrong with that. But his new job requires him to do a lot more than be friendly...
...advisory group to the Prime Minister's office set up in 2001, with a National Strategy Bureau (NSB) reporting to the Prime Minister. The NSB will be key in budget and diplomatic-policy formulation. The DPJ also wants to improve government transparency and crack down on conflicts of interest by eliminating amakudari, or "descent from heaven," a system whereby retiring bureaucrats are posted to plush private-sector jobs. "This is a new way of doing business in this country," says Curtis. "[But you] can't bash and demoralize [the bureaucrats]. The DPJ has to find a way to enlist them...
...true what a commentator once said about her: "She will make mistakes, but honest ones." And perhaps that is how Filipinos will remember her, a mere human (imperfect and flawed), but one who tried to live life in the most honest way she could, with only the best interest of others at heart. In her death, she has once and for all stepped out of the shadow of her husband, the assassinated Benigno Aquino Jr. She is the icon of Philippine democracy and the talisman of People Power. Weeks after the funeral, yellow banners and tarpaulins bearing her picture...