Many believe the Valley lacks the ability to re-engineer itself and make the critical shift to the next S-curve that it would require to maintain its ascendancy.
Villa were denied a fair penalty claim and maintained the ascendancy into the second half.
Evidently, the battle was inconclusive, as Muwatallis subsequently advanced as far south as Damascus, and the Hittites maintained their ascendancy in Syria.
But with Bairstow finding his touch to crash Lyon over the top for successive fours and Bell moving masterfully towards his fourth Ashes century in five Tests, England maintained their ascendancy.
England maintained their ascendancy during the second, third and fourth Tests, though with decreasing victory margins; Australia finally achieved success in the last match, giving England a 4 1 series victory.
The society was formed in 1795 to maintain the Protestant ascendancy in Ireland in the face of rising demands for Catholic Emancipation.
When, at the beginning of 1689, after James II had been driven from the country, Pepys retired, he had created a navy strong enough to maintain a long ascendancy in the world's seas.
It's a thought that comes from rereading Paul Kennedy's magisterial tome, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, in which he shows that none of the great nation-states or empires of history – Rome; imperial Spain in 1600; France in either its Bourbon or Bonapartist manifestations; the Dutch republic in 1700; Britain in its imperial glory – succeeded in maintaining its global ascendancy for long.
They are full of humble characters striving desperately to maintain their social positions and convince themselves of their ascendancy over the people around them – a struggle that nearly always involves them in a complicated balancing act of disdaining those on the upper rungs of the social ladder while aiming endless volleys of mockery at those who might be supposed to occupy the echelons below.
Gas-rich Qatar, so pivotal in the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, is keen to maintain its position at the helm of regional diplomacy and continue its political ascendancy.
At present Somalia's government is picked from members of the Hawiya tribe an ascendancy that is unjustified numerically, and would be very hard to maintain if a deluge of protectorate Somalis were to join forces with the opposition.
