The grants are nominally to commemorate the foundation's 25th anniversary, but they are also intended to underscore its commitment to continuing to make grants, said Jonathan F. Fanton, MacArthur's president.
Theresa May, the British prime minister, intends to underscore her proposed "new security partnership" with Europe by visiting British troops stationed in Estonia.
"We've already passed the bottom of the crisis in energy," he said in a speech that also seemed intended to underscore the sheer size and influence of his company's business.
The Obama administration declared an end to the United States combat mission in Iraq on Sept. 1, a step intended to underscore the Iraqis' increasing role in providing for their own security, but which was also aimed at reassuring Americans that President Obama was keeping his promise to remove forces from Iraq.
The setting of Mr. Obama's address — the soaring marble and limestone rotunda of the Archives, where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are kept — was intended to underscore his main theme: that as commander in chief he can uphold American values while also protecting the nation's security.
Wednesday's announcement clearly was intended to underscore that point.
Ms. Desi said that the competition was intended to underscore the institution's commitment to contemporary Asian art.
The Algorithm Auction is intended to underscore the aesthetics of computer code and, by extension, to attract more diverse people to programming.
Clinton administration officials said then that the dispatch of the Independence was intended to underscore the warnings the White House was sending to Beijing.
It was a cartoon, about 11 inches by 14, intended to underscore the leaders' new relationship as partners, rather than adversaries.
And the statement by Mr. Clinton was intended to underscore American support for an international effort that would go well beyond that, if needed.
