Until it does, Japan's efforts to play a more active role in Asian affairs will provoke distrust.

Mr. Bush's effort could provoke new questions about what constitutes a legitimate religion.

The leadership's effort to take back welfare money provoked protests from the nation's governors, Republicans and Democrats alike.

But that effort, led by the United States, was only partially successful and provoked considerable resentment among some nations.

An earlier effort to change the pension system provoked huge street protests during the mid-1990's and contributed to the Socialist landslide in 1997.

Short-sellers say that plan is little more a thinly disguised effort to provoke a short squeeze.

The effort has provoked outrage among doctors, who say it will drive a wedge into the doctor-patient relationship.

But efforts to crack down on the practice provoked an outcry that caused political problems for the White House.

Its efforts to find new markets in the Balkans had provoked intense nationalist feeling among the smaller peoples of the region.

For more than three decades, efforts to reform the courts provoked legislative dogfights.