In Iraq, this dangerous penchant for negotiations is what enabled Muqtada al-Sadr's pro-Iranian, pro-Hizbullah Mahdi Army to emerge from its April 2004 offensive against Coalition forces intact and free to become the power broker in Shii'te politics that it is today.
But the real power broker in the national security transition may be Jones, a retired Marine Corps four-star general.
Through its sponsorship of Hizbullah, Syria has become the primary power broker in Lebanon, even as it is heralded by the likes of Kouchner and Solana for its supposed noninterference in Lebanese politics.
The Hollywood power broker has lately turned his marketing skills on China, which is expected to surpass the U.S. box office by the end of the decade, driven by a boom in cinemas across the country.
For Democrats in the state, the ultimate humiliation came when the last great Democratic power-broker, the former lieutenant-governor Bob Bullock, who had dominated Texas politics for four decades, threw his support behind Mr Bush.
Mr Ahmadinejad accused all three challengers of ganging up on him, insinuating that they were in the pay of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a cleric and former president, but has long been a behind-the-scenes power broker.
His approval ratings have dipped, and the Washington power-broker has been spending rather more time in Texas than he used to: opening a new office, announcing money for new roads, posing for photographs to celebrate federal funding for new military hardware.
ECONOMIST: Attack him, and he just gets meaner��and stronger
Mr Putin, the best-connected power broker of them all, said last week that he would not enter into any bargains to limit the Yukos investigation, but neither would he extend it into a broader campaign against those who got rich in the 1990s.
Another, the controversial godman and power-broker Chandraswami, said he could not recall what happened around the time of the assassination.
Is this the former Kremlin power-broker, known mostly for political intrigues and murky business deals?
ECONOMIST: A fugitive tycoon becomes a civil libertarian��maybe
Compared with the prime minister, an economics professor, Mr Berlusconi looks every inch the professional Roman power-broker.
Yet even in the tech industry shared leadership works best when there is a power-broker behind the scenes.
"Fast track" authority gives the president unbridled power to broker trade agreements, which are then subject to an up or down vote by Congress.
Many believe, however, that Gingrich has been replaced as the Capitol's top GOP power broker by Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), who told the GOPAC gathering on Monday that tax cuts will be high on the legislative agenda.
Chief among them was oil and media tycoon Boris Berezovsky, the Kremlin's top power broker.
My vote for villain is Larry Sonsini, the Silicon Valley lawyer and power broker.
It represents the biggest chunk and has helped to cement long-term relations between the U.S. and Egyptian military, which since the 1952 revolution has been the country's key power broker.
He was known for his unflagging support of the state's national laboratories and military installations, and he became a power broker for his work on the federal budget and energy policy.
As leaked to the New York Times and Wall Street Journal this morning, Wall Street and Washington power broker Steven Rattner appears on the verge of walking away from a multi-million bribery scandal with a wrist-slap.
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After a political shake-up in November, the Democratic Party of Albanians, led by a veteran power-broker, Arben Xhaferi, became the main partner of the governing party, a movement that traces its history to the Slav-nationalist struggles of a century ago but has since become tamer.
He eventually handed the job to Daim Zainuddin, a wealthy power-broker and long-time ally who had helped to devise the controls as part of a wider recovery plan.
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He established himself as a power-broker in the hawkish party rather than a star in his own right.
Other possibles include Derby runner-up Golden Soul, Mylute (fifth in the Derby, third in the Preakness), Freedom Child, Power Broker and Code West.
What's less well known is the existence of a new kind of power broker on Pennsylvania Avenue, backroom power players who confront these forces and who strive to vault over them and, indeed, sometimes even succeed in doing so in making Washington work.
As I've written before, the power of golf as a social and business broker tends to be exaggerated, as it is with politics.
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Cuts in "Plan Colombia" and the failure in Washington to ratify the FTA probably was an impetus in convincing the government to request help from a dangerous power broker.
In practice, the distinction between warnings and war could vanish from sight if the conflict develops into a broader test of wills between the western alliance and Serbia's power-broker.
Mr Prescott's role as a power-broker and counsellor smoothed the often strained relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown and also helped ensure a trouble-free transition from one leader to the other.
The Baillie of Spynie, John Innes, a local power-broker signed her up.
If that happens he will be a power broker - he is promising a referendum on the euro and believes the current austerity measures are ruining Italy.
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