Their new assertiveness may reflect a labour law introduced in January 2008, which gave workers more contractual rights.

ECONOMIST: China's labour market

To justify its new assertiveness, the post office comes up with heart-rending self-justifications.

ECONOMIST: Japanese finance

The new assertiveness comes as tobacco analysts have started to acknowledge that growing demand for "e-cigs" in the US is peeling away customers from tobacco giants such as Altria, Lorillard and RJ Reynolds.

CNN: Sales of e-cigarettes continue to soar

SPD's new assertiveness may produce gridlock, not retreat.

ECONOMIST: Germany's government

Investors are showing new assertiveness because of financial uncertainty in the biotechnology business and anger at a perceived lack of predictability in FDA decisions, said former FDA Deputy Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, now a partner in a health-care investment firm.

WSJ: FDA Set to Decide Obesity Drug Lorcaserin's Fate

Since Turkey's new geopolitical assertiveness of Ottoman heritage will be driven by Turkish interests, those interests can best be reconciled with European interests on an arm's length basis.

ECONOMIST: Letters

The Angolan government's new western-backed assertiveness is not limited to its own territory.

ECONOMIST: Angola

It is not going to shed its new-found self-confidence and assertiveness just because of a few speeches.

ECONOMIST: Russia and the West: In search of a Putin policy | The

But in political terms, the new stridency among senior British Muslims is probably the bare minimum of assertiveness they could show while keeping any credibility with their grassroots.

ECONOMIST: British Muslims

Whether you are advocating a new point of view, supporting a customer, or sponsoring an employee for a promotion a little bit of extra assertiveness can help all leaders.

FORBES: Nine Leadership Resolutions for the New Year