Under Mr Assad, Syria is unlikely to commit itself one way or the other.
If America is prepared to commit itself to internationally binding targets, all well and good.
ECONOMIST: How to get negotiations on the right track for a deal
Until it has completed its research, Stagecoach said it could not commit itself to the facility.
BBC: A temporary bus station has been operating on James Street
The government, though, has been understandably reluctant to commit itself to anything with a whiff of nannyism.
No less importantly, the Republican ticket must commit itself to the sort of corrective action that is required.
No central bank would want to commit itself to squandering its reserves in defence of another country's shaky currency.
The British government has not wanted to commit itself to the expense either.
At the deadline, Italy could not completely commit itself to finding a share of the cost of Venus Express.
It can commit itself to keeping interest rates low for a sustained period.
But Rhode Island gave him a deal through the 2019-20 season, and the school promised to commit itself financially to improving the program.
Colgate could now decide to commit itself to using the new, modern tools which are lower cost, and have decidedly more targeted results.
FORBES: Compete to Win, Don't Play "Catch Up" - Colgate's Big Opportunity
And no firm has an incentive to commit itself unilaterally to uniform pricing, since that would not prevent rivals coming after its clients.
The report, Overcoming the Defence Crisis, urges the government to launch a comprehensive defence review and commit itself in principle to a spending increase.
But so far the company has been reluctant to commit itself to dealing with these bottlenecks, blaming the lack of incentives in its regulatory regime.
In other words, the new government has to show that it will not succumb to populism but rather commit itself to the creation of a functioning market economy.
Europe's new Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard recently published a paper that set out the arguments why the EU should commit itself to a unilateral cut of 30% by 2020.
While Russia seems interested in infrastructural energy projects in the region, Sofia does not want to commit itself to a Russian partnership on energy that would draw the ire of its Western allies.
Many economists would also like to see Japan commit itself to a whopping fiscal stimulus in the hope that a faster-growing economy could drag the rest of the region out of the mire.
Other Latin American countries are also hoping to reach an association deal with the Europeans, if not generous financial aid packages, but observers say the EU is not ready to commit itself to further close partnerships.
First, they want the new administration to explicitly commit itself to continued engagement in Europe, both in NATO and with the EU. Second, the signatories' want their countries to lobby for Europe to have a more responsible and active relationship with America.
Though ICCAT also promised to commit itself to catch levels based on scientific evidence, it proposed to postpone doing so until somewhere between 2011 and 2013, and then only at levels that would give a 60% probability of rebuilding the stock by 2023.
The administration therefore faces the prospect of going to Copenhagen without domestic legislation in place, and of either committing itself to a numerical target (acceptable to the foreigners but not the Senate) or failing to commit itself to one (more acceptable to the Senate but not to the foreigners).
ECONOMIST: How to get negotiations on the right track for a deal
It is easy for a brand to step away from such a big spend by citing the distraction of the second screen, which is a valid concern should the brand not commit itself to recognize that the person watching the Super Bowl has a device (cell phone, tablet, etc.) in his or her hand.
FORBES: Is It Worth Spending $4 Million On A Super Bowl Commercial?
To be clear, the strategic partnership itself does not commit the United States to any specific troop level or levels of funding in the future, as those are decisions that will be made in consultation with the U.S. Congress.
Perhaps also the opportunity to safely commit crimes is diminished by the disaster itself.
The assumption that people commit insider trading to make money may itself be wrong.
The relatively new anti-gang laws in El Salvador and Honduras do not include versions of America's witness-protection programme or its anti-racketeering laws, which allow suspects to be charged with conspiracy to commit a criminal act, rather than the act itself.
But it is thought Washington is reluctant to commit further funds and will want to spend its foreign aid unilaterally, rather than committing itself to a joint programme.
应用推荐