How the ～にあって form works - situations, places, times, what?

Question

I finally started going through some JLPT N1 grammar the other day, and one of the ones I'm looking at has me a bit confused: the ～にあって・～にあっても form. The book describes its usage as such: > ～のような特別の状況・時期・場所だからこそあることが起こる The 時期 and 場所 parts I can understand, but my problem is with the 状況 side of things. The problem this arose on was this: > 木村氏は（　　）にあって、日々多忙なスケジュールをこなしている。 The choices(the ones that make sense, that is) are: > １　一国の指導者 > ２　一国の指導者という立場 The answer is #2 - can anyone explain to me why? It seems like the first one is describing a 状況, but apparently not - at least, not more than 立場 does. Or is that 立場 referring to a place? EDIT - Since 立場 is the right answer, can someone say why 一国の指導者 is not actually a 特別な状況? Also, why does 立場 fall into the proper category?

Answer 1

I think you have learned the position word like 辞書はつくえの上にあります。A dictionary is on the desk. 辞書はつくえの上にある。にあるindicates where an object is placed. In this case, "the person" is placed in the important position, a leader of the country. However, you can't use "the person, 者" with the word, "にある", so we need to look for something else other than "者" or "人"to adjust ある, and that is 立場, position. If you really want to use both "person" and "ある", it will be "である". E.g. わがはいは猫である。I'm a cat. by Soseki Natsume