Word: shiftings
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...pulled the dustcover off my M-48 tank. She's a real beaut, vintage Korean-War model from back in the days of no-holds-barred V-8's and regular gasoline. I was about to start her up when I realized that the chrome and enamel "Kill" stick shift knob was missing. It's not like you can just walk into a tank shop and order a new one. Nowadays they're made of plastic with the words. "Drive safely" on them. It just wouldn't be authentic...
...also had the opportunity to grip a javelin--it was a long perfectly aerodynamic spear. I hefted the javelin as if to throw it with the tip against my ear. I noticed that the weight was shifted mostly to the rear which made the javelin appear unbalanced. Possibly, this weight shift occurred in response to a 104.41-meter throw by a Polish athlete that sailed off the throwing surface and nearly hit a runner on the track...
...tempting to see these developments as the handiwork of politicians and government bureaucrats. But this is hardly an accurate view of what has transpired. In fact, the shift away from international cooperation reflects much deeper changes in American public opinion. According to public opinion polls, the interest of Americans in international matters steadily declined throughout the 1970s. By the early 1980s, only one international problem--defense policy and the threat of war--ranked among the ten issues that Americans considered most important. In 1986, the foreign policy goal most important to the public was protecting the jobs of American workers...
Despite these shifts in public opinion, we are not likely to return to the isolation we practiced before the Second World War. Our stakes abroad are now too high to make that policy feasible. What we have been doing, it appears, is to shift more and more toward what one Assistant Secretary of State has called "global unilateralism." Whether by air strikes on Libya, withdrawals from international organizations, trade sanctions against Japan, or secret operations in the Middle East and Central America, we seem inclined to pursue our goals around the world with somewhat less attention to the interests...
Although we can understand the reaons for the shift toward unilateralism, we should not delude ourselves that such a policy will serve us well in the decades ahead. On the contrary, strong forces are at work in the world to limit our power to go it alone...