Either way, China's leaders will not put international outrage above any internal threats to their iron rule.
After decades of iron rule by one man, it will take time to build the institutions needed for a democratic Libya.
Under nearly 40 years of Fidel Castro's iron rule, the country has devolved into a dilapidated mess, with poor infrastructure and minimal services.
But isn't this exactly what populist despots always do--they drive their country into a corner and proceed to impose their iron rule unhindered from outside?
Given the nature of the proposed constitutional reforms, it is likely that Venezuela under Chavez's iron rule will impose more burdens and restrictions on privately owned businesses.
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By contrast in Indonesia, the ethnic Chinese this year were allowed to celebrate the Lunar New Year for the first time in a generation, now that Suharto's iron rule is gone.
What the law will do is to ask people to consider making religious services accessible to disabled people as a matter of course - it is not a cast iron rule that every church, mosque, synagogue or temple has to have a wheelchair ramp.
The drama, which HBO hopes will fill the void left by The Sopranos, stars Steve Buscemi as politico and gangster Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, whose dirty hands and iron fist rule Prohibition-era Atlantic City.
In the years since then, Indonesia has charted its own course through an extraordinary democratic transformation -- from the rule of an iron fist to the rule of the people.
Many expect the coming Independent Payment Advisory Board, created under the new health overhaul law, to exert an iron-fist rule over payment policies.
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With an iron fist to rule out any source of instability, the Chinese government is determined to set the country on the right path.
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Lessons in leadership from a politician with autocratic tendencies may well conflict with the iron-clad rule of survival as his number two: never pose a threat.
Brahimi said many Iraqis suggested a national convention be held to help the nation come together after years of war and decades of iron-fist rule by Saddam Hussein.
Whether it was appeasing the Soviet premiers of yesteryear or coddling today's Arab autocrats, the tendency to see the merits of such iron-fisted rule has colored Western strategic thinking.
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Religious conservatives have become increasingly assertive since the ruling Justice and Development Party led by Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swept to power in 2003 pledging to build an Islam-infused democracy and seeking to rehabilitate an Ottoman past long-discredited for decades during an iron-fisted secular rule.
Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu have shown that they could rule with an iron hand, without letting political rivals get under their skin.
It is the "Arab Street's" overwhelming animosity towards Israel that causes the pragmatists to argue that Israel's best play is to cut deals with Arab dictators who rule with an iron fist.
The 61-year-old former military general pledged to rule Guatemala with an iron fist when he ran for office last year.
That is, he argued that it made sense to surrender massive amounts of strategically critical land to a terrorist organization because Arafat and his associates would repress their people with an iron fist, unfettered by the rule of law and Palestinian human rights organizations.
The story is set in Indonesia on the eve of the attempted Communist coup in 1965, and which led to the 30 year rule of Suharto, who ruled the country with an iron fist.
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Moreover, it had proved its ability to rule Gaza, enforcing better law and order (though with an iron fist) than Fatah ever had.
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