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Defensive in sentence

277 examples of Defensive in a sentence

Berlusconi regards his “commercial diplomacy” as a formidable defensive weapon, which may help explain why he is not too concerned about how his actions in this area are perceived on the international front.
Defensive barriers would not necessarily require heavy investment; they could be mounds of sand several meters high located along and near the shoreline.
Increasing defensive measures worldwide by 25% would cost at least US$75 billion over five years.
Put another way, each extra dollar spent increasing defensive measures will achieve – at most – about 30 cents of return.
Contrary to the effect of increased defensive measures, fostering greater international cooperation to cut off terrorists’ financing would be relatively cheap and quite effective.
When a war of salvation and survival turned into a war of conquest, occupation, and annexation, the international community recoiled and Israel went on the defensive.
While his summit with Kennedy in Vienna earlier in 1961 had done nothing to improve the situation, erecting the Wall on August 13 seemed to him a purely defensive act, not a show of force.
Perhaps the paranoid style in public debate, focusing on motives rather than substance, is a useful defensive tactic against rabid critics.
Social-democratic governments have been on the defensive against those who claim that redistributing wealth exacts too high a cost on economic growth, and unable to convince voters to fund yet another massive expansion of higher education.
Today, the country is on the defensive, fearful even of its own journalists.
As with fossil fuels, our only choice is to overcome the industry’s defensive resistance and transform our food system so that it enables diets that are healthier, cleaner, and every bit as delicious.
With the level of intervention by major countries currently limited (China) or non-existent (Japan), this is an ideal moment to include a currency clause in the TPP, as most countries are less likely to become defensive.
Or will it opt for a defensive, backward-looking, insular retreat?
For the time being, the alliance of federal forces and self-defense groups has the Knights Templar on the defensive.
As the economy struggled, optimism gave way to a more defensive and insular view that values self-reliance.
But power generates opposition, and Germany’s alarmed neighbors began to form defensive alliances.
Indeed, given its lack of confidence in China’s readiness and willingness to keep the North in check, South Korea is now seeking even deeper defensive ties with the US, as well as enhancing its political and defense cooperation with Japan.
But to do so, we have to stop treating culture in so neurotic and defensive a manner.
It remains a defensive alliance, but one ready to attack to protect peace and stability or to fight terrorism and nuclear proliferation.
In fact, most EU countries – with the notable exception of Germany – are in decline, leading a conservative and defensive Europe to become preoccupied with its own commercial interests.
But it is imperative that world leaders pursue such positive globalization strategies, rather than the negative, defensive, and protectionist policies that are so universally on offer today.
Putin’s actions demonstrate that Russia does not accept that NATO is a defensive alliance that poses no threat to Russian security.
South Korea’s leaders have agreed to deploy the THAAD system as a defensive maneuver.
NATO, moreover, not only enlarged its membership, but also transformed itself from an anti-Communist defensive alliance into an offensive grouping (with operations in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan).
But a right of self-defense does not mean a right to do anything that can be construed as a defensive act, regardless of the cost to civilians.
For the question now is whether the time is ripe to make the transition to another strategic paradigm altogether, one in which the levels of offensive and defensive systems change in both absolute and relative terms.
Instead, the US should undertake three things: aggressive testing of various architectures for a missile defense system, including sea-based systems that could intercept missiles in the immediate post-launch, boost phase before warheads and decoys can be released; careful study of the consequences of moving to various mixes of offensive and defensive systems; and intense consultations with Russia, China and America's allies in Europe and Asia about how to maintain strategic stability in the post-Cold War era.
They gave assurances that, while NATO has adopted a global approach to security, its main activities outside Europe and Afghanistan will primarily comprise dialogue with partners or, in special cases, joint defensive measures with other security institutions under a UN mandate, such as in the Gulf of Aden.
First, the economic crisis has created a more defensive, more self-centered, and – at the level of states – more protectionist attitude.
This response is intertwined with a defensive reaction to the growing role of TNC’s from emerging markets, the “new kids on the block.”
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