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


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?




To be clear, answer 1 is grammatically incorrect, not just inferior.

It might be easier to grasp if you think of a 状況 here as something you find
yourself “in”, rather than something you “are”. The difference is being _in_
the position of a leader, instead of _being_ the leader.

Note that the problem here has nothing to do with this special
definition/usage of ～にあって・～にあっても. The distinction is simply between 〜にある and
〜である.

彼は指導者 **である** — He _is_ the leader

彼は指導者という立場 **にある** — He _is in_ the position of a leader

`〜という状況 (situation)` and `〜という役目 (role)` are also fine, because you are _in_ a
situation, _in_ a role, etc.

Accordingly, the following sentence is grammatically correct, and means
exactly the same thing:

> 木村氏は一国の指導者 **で** あって、日々多忙なスケジュールをこなしている。

