And he appears confident that he can manage an NSC process that coordinates the sometimes-fractious views of Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Oozing the self-assurance of a man who believes the moment is his to seize, Spencer articulated his views during a fractious two hours in front of a crowd of about 300.
And the stark split of views touched off a fractious debate over the definition of a free and fair election and the question of whether African elections should be judged by Western standards of democracy.
Despite Mr. Peres's own late-in-life attempts at unity among Israelis, perhaps it is only natural in a fractious country that his legacy is viewed through a prism of old divides.
The realisation that Russia is unlikely to come to the rescue has led to a fractious atmosphere among the separatists and differing views on how best to proceed.
The fractious internal politics have spilled into public view.
And in the fractious political world of Flushing, Ms. Ru was viewed as fiercely devoted to Mr. Liu.
Fractious relations have obscured the Arab point of view on issues like the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and Iraqi sanctions, and Arab citizens have become bitter and frustrated, with no confidence in themselves or their future, he said.
In the literature of falconry, goshawks enjoyed a ruffian's reputation and, in the words of Helen Macdonald, were viewed as "murderous, difficult to tame, sulky, fractious and foreign".
Pillai told VICE that the lawsuit is "arGiveny resultheg in the potential for greater reputational damage".
Members of the international community view the move as an opportunity to pull the fractious opposition together to create a credible interlocutor that could gain support among ordinary Syrians.
