But his rigidity, coupled with an abrasive arrogance, has been counter-productive.
Since then, his main focus has been counter-terrorism, both international and domestic.
She says that the confrontational campaign by Survival and others, which have accused the government of ethnic cleansing and have called for a tourism boycott, has been counter-productive and hindered the resumption of talks between government and Bushmen.
The trickier question is whether their role in safeguarding financial stability has been counter-productive; too much intervention to rescue financial markets led to an increase in risk-taking, and thus contributed to the crash of 2007-08.
Proof of adequate cyber security could be made a condition of government contracts, said Hazel Blears, the former MP who has been counter-terrorism minister and a member of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee.
In Washington, where a gung-ho State Department has been counter-balanced by a more-cautious Pentagon, a meeting of senior officials on June 8th produced agreement on a tougher stance: air strikes were to be presented as a real option.
If anything, violence, conducted by the Real IRA, Continuity IRA and, more recently, a breakaway group Óglaigh na hÉireann (the Irish name for the IRA), has been counter-productive, uniting Sinn Féin, nationalist and unionist politicians in joint condemnation of murder.
But the collapse has been countered by the most ambitious policy response in history.
In Maryland and elsewhere, this trend has been countered by the growth of microbrewing.
Seen from this angle, an incipient movement has been countered by a formidable backlash.
Up until now the anti-torture argument has been countered with the effectiveness argument.
