As sovereign of Madagascar, Ranavalona III became a pawn in the endgame of the manoeuvring that had been taking place between the British and French since the beginning of the century.
It's a fiscal manoeuvre that has all the appearances of a clever Treasury wheeze.
His real concern is a manoeuvre that has landed not only his own company but the whole industry in hot water.
As if things couldn't get more corporate, not only is Dame David attempting to resurrect a forgotten album by embracing an underground manoeuvre that has long since crossed over to the mainstream, but the whole thing is sponsored by Apple, who are making the winning track available for download at its iTunes stores.
Cyclical sighs are a recruitment manoeuvre that has received little attention in recent years.
Waterloo was narrower than most Napoleonic battlefields, which ruled out the kind of wide flanking manoeuvre that had brought Napoleon success before.
So a team from JPL has got together to analyse all of the slingshot manoeuvres that have been carried out over the years, to see if they really do involve a small but systematic extra boost.
Luckily, his friend Hugo Chavez has lashings of oil money, some of which he has just used to purchase $3.1 billion worth of Argentinian debt.But despite this carping, can the two presidents not congratulate themselves on a clever financial manoeuvre that had something for everybody who was party to it?
He's a writer of a terribly playful sort of provocation, who, like all the greatest artists, is willing to let you go if you will: "But perhaps it is now you, reader, who, buffeted by all these possibilities, tired of these manoeuvres that have you stamping with impatience at the threshold of this work, have one and for all lost your desire to know more about it.
It was a carefully rehearsed manoeuvre that had taken months to plan.
