In short, is it possible that the country that gained a reputation as the Keystone Kops of nuclear nations, setting off nuclear explosions that sputtered and missiles that crashed into the sea, has actually gotten its act together to the point that it now may pose a significant threat?
Between 1946 and 1962, the nation set off more than 200 atmospheric blasts.
A "small island nation" set off from the huge Asian landmass, Japan was "home to the gods" and to a supposedly homogenous race of people whose origins, like those of their language, defied detection.
Still, the very existence of federal court ruling recognizing same-sex marriage in California, the nation's most populous state, set off cheers of "We won!" from crowds assembled in front of the courthouse in San Francisco.
George W. Bush's "splendid little war" against Iraq wrecked that nation, setting off a conflict which killed perhaps 200,000 people, wounding and otherwise traumatizing far more, forcing as many as half of Iraq's Christians from their homes, many to Syria, and empowering Iran.
Mr. Noda and other deficit hawks worry that Japan's debt, which is the largest among industrialized nations, will set off a crisis akin to Europe's.
Mr. Rathore had left the courtroom smiling, an image that stirred the nation and set off an angry debate in the news media over the handling of the case.
BERLIN — Germany's recent decision to declare a terrorism alert and dispatch heavily armed police around the nation was set off by phone calls from a man who said he wanted to quit working with terrorists and warned of a pending Mumbai-style attack, according to a law enforcement official with firsthand knowledge of the alert.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — With his adversaries boycotting the ceremony and a vast deployment of police officers standing guard outside, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn into office on Wednesday for a second term as president, almost two months after an election that divided the nation and set off Iran's deepest crisis since the Islamic Revolution 30 years ago.
In making their case these planners have revived a staple of cold-war thinking, the domino theory: the idea that sudden change in the leadership of one nation can set off a chain reaction in its neighbors, transforming an entire region.
