The age classes gathered together males from all clans, and they were the main potential counterweight to the power of the clan leaders.

Vietnam also serves as a potential strategic counterweight against an increasingly unpredictable China.

France fears that expanding the European Union membership will erode its influence and weaken Europe's position as a potential counterweight to American power.

India's rivalry with China makes it a potential counterweight to Beijing in the Russian strategic calculus - just as it was in Soviet times.

Additionally, the summit meeting opened the way for Egypt, long ostracized by other Arab countries because of its 1979 peace treaty with Israel, to re-enter the Arab fold, supposedly as a demographic and potential military counterweight to Iran.

From the start of President Bush's term, some influential officials in his administration saw India as a potential counterweight to that other Asian behemoth, China, whose growing power was seen as a potential strategic threat.

Relying more on ordinary citizens than on the professional military, the Patriotic Guards served as a potential counterweight to or check on the power and influence of the regular armed forces.

By the early 1980's, the generals who ran Turkey for two years after taking power in a coup had come to see Islam as a potential counterweight to what was seen as a Communist threat during the cold war.

India is also perceived as challenging a potential counterweight to China's regional power.

Cocoa production declined in the 1970s and 1980s, however, and market conditions discouraged international investors from viewing it as a potential counterweight to Uganda's reliance on coffee exports.