Word: threatfully
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...Americans, a global slowdown, short of a recession, wouldn't be all bad news. Exporters would benefit, though they account for only 12% of the economy. A gradual global slowdown would also give the Fed far more room to maneuver without the threat of stoking inflation. But there are downsides too: the U.S. would see high energy prices as Asia's demand for oil kept soaring, a continued dollar slump as low interest rates made it less attractive to hold dollar-denominated securities, and the threat of rising inflation as a weak dollar made imports more expensive. And a global...
...Others see climate change as a pressing threat to national security. This danger is perceived to be physical, in the form of rising seas and superstorms, as well as geopolitical. Remaining addicted to fossil fuels mires the U.S. in the labyrinth of Middle East politics and keeps the country dependent upon oil-rich antagonists such as Iran and Russia. Conservatives who have jumped the fence on global warming have done so chiefly because of this issue. Many were convinced after a panel of retired generals and admirals delivered a report last year warning of the security implications of rising temperatures...
...military bureaucracy can itself be a threat to the funds. A recent turnover of generals in Baghdad has led to a routine review of guidelines, regulations and spending. But what the incoming generals might view as cutting the fat off programs, lower-ranking officers see as a threat to the very goodwill and positive rapport they've worked months to established between themselves and community leaders. Brown says that higher-ups are going to cut the money each contractor receives - Sunni leaders who stick their necks out and who have been increasingly targeted by insurgents in the past few months...
This explanation of infatuation was devised by the economist Robert Frank on the basis of the work of Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling. Social life is a series of promises, threats and bargains; in those games it sometimes pays to sacrifice your self-interest and control. An eco-protester who handcuffs himself to a tree guarantees that his threat to impede the logger is credible. The prospective home buyer who makes an unrecoverable deposit guarantees that her promise to buy the house is credible. And suitors who are uncontrollably smitten are in effect guaranteeing that their pledge of love is credible...
...this gets us to the dark side of romance. Threats, no less than promises, must be backed up by signs of commitment. A desperate lover in danger of being abandoned may resort to threatening his wife or girlfriend (yes, his; it's usually a man). The best way to prevent her from calling his bluff is in fact not to bluff--to be the kind of hothead who is crazy enough to do it. Of course, if he does make good on the threat, everyone loses (which is why the judicial system must make good on its threat to punish...