leverage

Question

Hello. I've been having a trouble with the word leverage. I see this word many times in various contexts, and often the dictionary definitions give me a confusion.

And now, I'm having a trouble with the word again, and need a help to interpret the following sentence:

But it seems apparent the President made little effort to figure out how his Administration could leverage the shocking candor of the intelligence report to his advantage in dealing with Iran.

The sentence is from a TIME-article which discusses the dealing of the Bush Administration with Iran. The "intelligence report" in the sentence above refers to the report by NIE stating that Iran does not appear to be making nuclear weapons. The article argues that President Bush should have levereged the candor of the intelligence report to his advantage in dealing with Iran, and made a softer approach to the Iranian goverment to pursue them to make their nuclear enriching programs more transparent.

How should I interpret the word "leverage" in the sentence above?

Please help, and thanks in advance.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I've been having a trouble with the word leverage. I see this word many times in various contexts, and often the dictionary definitions give me a confusion.

And now, I'm having a trouble with the word again, and need a help to interpret the following sentence:

But it seems apparent the President made little effort to figure out how his Administration could leverage the shocking candor of the intelligence report to his advantage in dealing with Iran.

The sentence is from a TIME-article which discusses the dealing of the Bush Administration with Iran. The "intelligence report" in the sentence above refers to the report by NIE stating that Iran does not appear to be making nuclear weapons. The article argues that President Bush should have levereged the candor of the intelligence report to his advantage in dealing with Iran, and made a softer approach to the Iranian goverment to pursue them to make their nuclear enriching programs more transparent.

How should I interpret the word "leverage" in the sentence above?

Generally speaking, the idea of 'leverage' as a verb is to use a small thing to gain a large advantage. We see this in the way that a physical lever is used to move a large object with a small amount of force.

Thus, the idea above is that Bush should somehow have used the NIE report to gain a larger advantage. How he would do this, I don't know. That's a matter of international diplomacy.

I'm not sure if I have completely answered your question. Please post again, if I haven't.

Clive

Vocabobobo · Answer

Hello Clive. Your posting has answered my question clearly, and I would like to thank you for your helpful and surprisingly quick response.

Thanks a lot.

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leverage

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