In a thought-provoking lecture Maurice Obstfeld of the University of California, Berkeley pointed out that the euro crisis had decisively undermined the notion that large current-account deficits don't matter as long as governments budget wisely.
Abdel Moneim Said, who is the head of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, a think tank that works closely with the regime, was among many who told me that the American failure so far to establish security in Iraq has decisively undermined the idea of a democratization movement in Egypt and elsewhere in the region.
The claim by France and Germany to speak for Europe was decisively undermined in January 2003 by the now-famous "letter of eight", a pro-American declaration by eight European governments Britain, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Spain that was co-ordinated by Mr Aznar's people.
Today's genital fundamentalism thus finds itself confronting an openly hostile scientific community whose research is decisively undermining its arguments, and a populace that is on the whole disinclined to accept appeals to Scripture at face value.
They and other leaders believed that if the 54th Regiment could succeed in battle, charges of racial inferiority, so frequent at the time, would be undermined decisively.
If neither Ms Gillard nor Mr Rudd emerges decisively from the showdown, Labor's leadership woes will undermine its re-election prospects further.
What happens in one country can undermine the moral dimension of the whole European Union, and decisively so.
"Failure to act decisively to address humanitarian needs will not only lead to another humanitarian crisis but will also undermine the peace and state-building gains of the last two years, jeopardizing this rare window for Somalia to graduate from failed state status," said John Ging.
To undermine this undermines our parliamentary democracy.
