Then came Cole's decisive intervention - and still Portsmouth could have won it.

BBC: Portsmouth 1-1 Fulham

But this was hardly the decisive intervention some had hoped for.

ECONOMIST: Burying the Asian miracle

His most decisive intervention in the economy came in 2008 when he blocked the sale of Alitalia to Air France, insisting on patriotic grounds that it should remain in Italian hands.

ECONOMIST: The Italian crisis

The Islamists' movement southward has raised concerns among leaders in West Africa and elsewhere, some of them calling for swift and decisive military intervention to aid Mali's government, based in Bamako.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

And the Islamists' movement southward has raised concerns among leaders in West Africa and elsewhere, some of them calling for swift and decisive military intervention in support of Mali's government, based in Bamako.

CNN: SHARE THIS

In two world wars American intervention was decisive.

BBC: Will the rise of the rest mean the decline of the US?

Nor is foreign intervention of a more decisive read, military kind likely soon.

ECONOMIST: Kosovo