Faced with a collapsing economy and approaching elections, the temptation for Morsi to stoke nationalist, anti Israel sentiment will become stronger. A major incident on the border could be enough to push him over the edge.

Second, Central Asia s leadership transitions could tempt outside powers to exploit the resulting instability and spark a struggle for influence.

Or perhaps the low cost of international capital will entice the US to absorb some of the world s excess savings, triggering a new period of global expansion.

Government forces may be tempted to think that, after the signing of the north south agreement, for which they have received much praise, the international community would not dare to put the implementation of that Agreement at risk.

If the peace process does not exist, the resulting vacuum might tempt some in the Arab world to deal with the problem of rising economic expectations and, alas, dashed political expectations through old fashioned anti Israel demagoguery.

In these difficult economic times, Switzerland serves as a handy scapegoat, enabling financially challenged states to discharge their frustrations and divert their citizens attention from shortcomings in their own complicated and inefficient tax systems.

The simultaneity of unmanageable uncertainties the crux of globalization itself may lure some into seeking to reverse a process that has become inescapable and over which no one has control.

Iran s emergence as a nuclear weapons state would almost certainly tempt several of the main Sunni Muslim countries (Turkey, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia all come to mind) to embark on a crash program to acquire or develop nuclear arms of their own.

So prevalent is this little England mood that Prime Minister David Cameron s government is now tempted to hold a referendum to ask the British whether they want to remain within the European Union, a vote that even that arch euro skeptic, Margaret Thatcher, never risked.

Things that we read about in the paper with gory footage burn into memory more than reports of a lot more people dying in their beds of old age. There are dynamics in the opinion and advocacy markets no one ever attracted observers, advocates and donors by saying things just seem to be getting better and better.