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War on Terror

Global crusade to root out anti western and anti American Islamist terrorist cells launched by President George W. Bush as a response to the 9/11 attacks

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996 (PRWOA)

Comprehensive welfare-reform measure aiming to decrease the size of the "welfare state" by limiting the amount of government unemployment aid to encourage its recipients to find jobs. Hey

Contract with America (1994)

List of conservative promises in response to the supposed liberalism of the Clinton administration; drafted by Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and other congressional Republicans as a campaign tactic for the 1994 midterm elections

Bush Doctrine

National security policy launched in 2002 by which the Bush administration claimed the right to launch preemptive military attacks against perceived enemies, particularly outlaw nations or terrorist organizations believed to possess weapons of mass destruction.

New Economy

Period of sustained economic prosperity during the nineties marked by federal budget surpluses, the explosion of dot-com industries, low inflation, and low unemployment.

Ethnic cleansing

Systematic killing of an ethnic group from a territory through violence or intimidation in order to create a homogenous society; the term was popularized by the Yugoslav policy brutally targeting Albanian Muslims in Kosovo.

USA Patriot Act (2001)

Wide-reaching Congressional legislation, triggered by the war on terror, which gave government agencies the right to eavesdrop on confidential conversations between prison inmates and their lawyers and permitted suspected terrorists to be tried in secret military courts

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

Agreement signed by the United States, Canada, and Mexico in 1992 to form the largest free trade zone in the world.

Globalization

An important and controversial transformation of the world economy led by the growing number of multinational companies and the internet, whereby an international marketplace for goods and services was created.