On teen shows, it's the crush revelation; on medical series, the surgical screw-up; on reality television, the broken alliance.
The rivalry between Mr. Djindjic and Mr. Draskovic is legendary, and stems from their broken alliance in 1997, when the opposition won the last local elections and Mr. Milosevic's effort to rob them of the victory brought hundreds of thousands of protesters onto the streets every day for three months.
And the fact is that they have broken alliances across the planet that have served us well for years, they've left our reputation in tatters.
That map has been in constant flux for the last 60 years, during which the main players - Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Israel, and Iran - have formed and broken alliances.
Over a career spent scheming in the back rooms of Japanese politics, he has made and broken alliances, toppled governments and, with laconic disdain, treated transparency and other democratic norms as so many Western pretences.
Young ravens are known to form and break alliances, demonstrating "social flexibility".
The election will take place because they felt free in the last parliament to make and break alliances as their whims and parochial calculations dictated.
As Portugal and other northern nations seeking riches became more muscular in Africa, the rulers of the Kongo found themselves making and breaking alliances with the Europeans and quelling civil wars.
Tamil Nadu was a highly polarized state politically, and the AIADMK and rival DMK frequently formed and then broke alliances with Congress and non-Congress parties during different elections.
The drama of rank and kinship, the authors reveal, would be right at home in Jane Austen, as the baboons make and break alliances with friends, relatives, and rivals.
A RAND report breaks alliances into three categories: tactical, historical, and natural.
