Most American cities are in a reactive posture, trying to hold onto the basics of public safety, fire protection or keeping the bridges from falling.

He said Western bankers had adopted a "reactive, passive posture which does not advance the process."

Streit argued that, in a globalizing world, the trend towards growing domestic exposure to "external" problems had led many to embrace a reactive posture.

Instead, the department has adopted a purely reactive posture, and drifts from crisis to crisis.

Instead, the 911 system forces police into a reactive posture, rolling in after a crime occurs to take information that might or might not lead to an arrest.

As a result, she added, the agency "has been in a reactive posture - adding controls every year" in hopes of patching a solution.

Republicans are taking some surprising stands, if only because they are constantly being caught in an inactive or reactive posture.

"This is a reactive, passive posture which does not advance the process," Mr. Mulford said.

Not that much thought was required - Me-Larr's, after all, was the reactive posture.

I maintain a standard reactive posture of nullification against subhuman forms which transgress.