Against that background, China s increasingly assertive territorial and maritime claims threaten Asian peace and stability.

Although increasingly assertive in Africa and Latin America, China largely remains a free rider under the American security umbrella.

Indeed, an increasingly assertive China has proven a diplomatic boon for the US in strengthening and expanding its Asian security relationships.

More recently, local commissions, non governmental organizations, an increasingly assertive media, and sanctioned public demonstrations have become established channels for mediating social conflict.

Consider the territorial disputes roiling the Indian Ocean and other East Asian regions, sparked by China s repeated and increasingly assertive efforts to claim sovereignty over vast maritime areas.

The real winner from the recent appointment of the conservative dominated, seven member Politburo Standing Committee is the PLA, whose rising clout has underpinned China s increasingly assertive foreign policy.

But it is apparent that an increasingly assertive China is unwittingly reinforcing America s role in Asia, restoring US primacy as the implicit guarantor of security and stability in the region.

Three cases before the country s increasingly assertive Supreme Court promise to take Pakistan from the phase of demilitarization to a system in which meaningful checks can be exercised on those who wield power.

NEW DELHI As if to highlight that Asia s biggest challenge is managing the rise of an increasingly assertive China, the Chinese government has unveiled plans to build large new dams on major rivers flowing to other countries.

Indonesia s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has perhaps been the most assertive.

That, in turn, will merely encourage Russia to become even more assertive.

Russia is not becoming assertive, aggressive, or imperial, as many observers claim.

There is a difference between assertive promotion and more gentle support of democratization.

There is a difference between assertive promotion of democracy and more gentle support.

NEW DELHI Stoking tensions with Japan, Vietnam, and the Philippines over islands in the South and East China Seas has not prevented an increasingly assertive China from opening yet another front by staging a military incursion across the disputed, forbidding Himalayan frontier.

If anything, Abe is even more committed to building an assertive and unapologetic Japan.

How Asia s geopolitical landscape will evolve over the coming decades is not easy to foresee. But it is apparent that an increasingly assertive China is unwittingly reinforcing America s role in Asia, restoring US primacy as the implicit guarantor of security and stability in the region.

If Sunnis triumph there, they may become more assertive in countries that have large Shia populations.

They point to the negative results of China s more assertive policies since the economic crisis of 2008.

Without personal experience of China s recent traumatic history, the next generation will be more confident and assertive.

With Merkel, the substance of Germany s foreign policy will change little, but the assertive style will be muted.

Finally, as China has become more confident and assertive, its shadow over Russia has grown longer and thicker.

An assertive and relatively stable China, it seems, must expand, lest pent up internal pressures tear it apart.

Assertive community treatment, or ACT, is an intensive and highly integrated approach for community mental health service delivery.

It is time for the Assembly to be more assertive within the mandate accorded it by the Charter.

Can this change? Germany certainly became assertive, owing mostly to the social pressures and tensions incited by rapid economic growth.

Russian President Vladimir Putin s assertive foreign policy stance of recent years reflects the confidence that comes with a booming economy.

Obama s foreign and defense policies have been assertive, to say the least, especially in the Middle East and the Pacific.

Thailand's experience has taught us that, ultimately, developing nations can and should become equal and assertive partners in our own development.

Indeed, overconfidence in assessing its power led to more assertive Chinese foreign policy behavior in the latter part of 2009 and 2010.

The Hats, who ruled Sweden from 1738 to 1765, advocated an alliance with France and an assertive foreign policy, especially towards Russia.

There is thus little reason to believe that a more explicitly assertive stance is necessary for dealing with the splittist government in Taipei.

In principle, everyone wants heavy hitters in practice, many national leaders resist the idea of a more independent and assertive team in Brussels.

This unusually assertive stance reflects rising frustration among Christians, as well as the secular and liberal opposition, with the Muslim Brotherhood s power monopoly.

More significant, Japan s leaders are now openly debating ways to transform the country s post World War II pacifism into a much more assertive nationalism.