Yet by no means is she ignorant of trickery, or oblivious to the precariousness of reality in her own photographs.

FORBES: How Rineke Dijkstra Transforms Trite Subjects Into Profoundly Revealing Photographs

But maybe she, too, has internalized the precariousness of the union, and its desperate need for order and economic progress.

FORBES: Asia's Week: Shadows on the Burmese Spring

There lies the second reason for Mr Hashimoto's new precariousness.

ECONOMIST: The ungrateful Japanese

The stalling of a major offensive led by the cream of its recently modernised armed forces has exposed the precariousness of its grip on the peninsula, which was wrested from the Tigers only in 1996.

ECONOMIST: Sri Lanka

The precariousness of some buildings has come to light internationally in recent days following the collapse Wednesday of an eight-story building in a suburb of Dhaka, Bangladesh, where at least 362 people have been confirmed to have died.

NPR: 2 Die After Explosion, Building Collapse In France

It is probably worth pointing out at this juncture that Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister and proponent of Scottish independence, supported RBS's ill-judged takeover in 2007 of the bulk of ABN Amro, the deal which massively increased both RBS's size and precariousness.

BBC: Could RBS stay in an independent Scotland?

The precariousness of the prime minister's position was embarrassingly demonstrated on July 10th, when the Knesset voted by 54 to 52 in favour of a motion of no confidence in the prime minister put forward by the right-wing Likud party not far short of the 61 votes needed to topple Mr Barak.

ECONOMIST: The distance between them