The ruling elite are known to be torn by disputes and rivalries.

but shun foolish questionings, genealogies, strife, and disputes about the law for they are unprofitable and vain.

But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain.

Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members?

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?

MOGADISHU Somalia s internal conflict is propelled by a combustible mix of religion, politics, and clan rivalry.

While the US presence in the region has so far prevented its numerous conflicts and rivalries from intensifying, sources of uncertainty are multiplying. Will China be wise enough to seek reconciliation and partnerships with its neighbors, large and small, rather than aiming for regional domination?

But, notwithstanding the occasional bust ups, Korean and Taiwanese democracies seem remarkably robust.

Europe s old political order was based on competition, mistrust, power rivalries, and, ultimately, war among sovereign states.

Since the war, the bitter enmities between Al Qaeda and other Salafist and Sunni Arab nationalist groups have given way to cooperation or even mergers.

The American discount retailer Walmart, reportedly concerned that it is cannibalizing its own sales, has gone so far as to stop selling Amazon s Kindle tablets.

For starters, in a region replete with territorial disputes and old rivalries that are as bitter as the Arab Israeli conflict, America faces a geopolitical environment with no security architecture and no agreed conflict resolution mechanism.

But, notwithstanding the occasional bust ups, Korean and Taiwanese democracies seem remarkably robust. And the argument that Japanese, or other Asians, are culturally averse to political competition is not historically true.

In an area full of suspicion and antagonism towards the state, expanding the targets of its political prosecutions from Tibetan protestors to environmentalists and from dissident monks to businessmen risks further undermining China s own objectives in its most troubled region.