The phrase 'fail to assume' is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to express that someone has not taken on a responsibility or has neglected to recognize something. For example, "He failed to assume responsibility for his mistakes and was reprimanded by his supervisor."
These winter deaths should not be blamed solely on the cold weather, but rather also on governments who fail to assume responsibility for the poor and homeless.
More to the point, have you ever seen him, even in a small or fleeting role, fail to assume a commanding position — not hogging the limelight but pointing briskly to the unexpected heart of the film?
If AMISOM adopts a predetermined timetable for exit, al-Shabab will likely wait out the A.U. forces while Somali authorities will probably fail to assume their agreed responsibilities on schedule.
More to the point, have you ever seen him, even in a small or fleeting role, fail to assume a commanding position not hogging the limelight but pointing briskly to the unexpected heart of the film?
If, on the other hand, our phenomenologist makes use of that belief, then he is bound to violate the constraints put upon him by the local epoché: he cannot but fail to assume the phenomenological attitude.
Evidence shows that as governments in developing economies often fail to assume their role in creating and strengthening social institutions, SE might play a significant role in economic development and growth (Mair and Marti 2009).
She seemed mystified by the male cheetah's eagerness and failed to assume a mating position.
This is one reason that China has failed to assume the leadership of the developing world as some had predicted.
The United States, in his view, "failed to assume the moral responsibility that we owed to those who worked so closely with us during those tumultuous years".
At one point on a recent evening, when poor Ms. Eagan was called upon to don a sequined red costume in midspeech, it failed to assume the proper shape, requiring her to explain that it was intended to be the Big Apple (rather than the squashed plum tomato it resembled).
