Chapter 18 Vocab (second half)
containment
Cold War-era policy of preventing the spread of communism, mainly providing military and economic aid as well as political advice to countries vulnerable to a communist takeover
brinkmanship
Cold War-era practice of fooling the enemy by going to the edge (the brink), even if the party using the strategy has no intention of following through
defense conversion
President Jimmy Carter's attempt to convert the nation's vast military apparatus to peacetime functions
clash of civilizations theory
Samuel Huntington's idea that bitter cultural conflict will continue and escalate between modern Western democracies and fundamentalist Islamic states
strategic defense initiative (SDI or "Star Wars")
a ballistic missile defense system advocated by President Ronald Reagan
limited war
a combatant country's self-imposed limitation on the tactics and strategy it uses, particularly its avoidance of the use of nuclear weapons
Truman Doctrine
articulated by President Harry Truman, a foreign policy commitment by the United States to assist countries' efforts to resist communism in the Cold War era
strategic arms limitation talks (SALT talks)
discussions between the United States and the Soviet Union in the 1970s that focused on cooling down the nuclear arms race between the two superpowers
detente
easing of tensions between the United States and its communist rivals
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
institution charged with regulating monetary relationships among nations, including establishment of exchange rates for major world currencies, established in 1944 by the Bretton Woods Agreement
World Bank
international financial institution created by the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 and charged with lending money to nations in need
World Trade Organization (WTO)
organization created in 1995 to negotiate, implement, and enforce international trade agreements
Nixon Doctrine
policy emphasizing the responsibility of US allies to provide for their own national defense and security, aimed at improving relations with the communist nations, including the Soviet Union and China
Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)
regional security agreement whose goal was to prevent communist encroachment in the countries of Southeast Asia `
strategic arms reduction talks (START talks)
talks between the United States and the Soviet Union in which reductions in missiles and nuclear warheads, not merely a limitation on increases, were negotiated
Bush Doctrine
the argument, articulated by President George W. Bush, that unilateral action directly targeted at an enemy is both justifiable and feasible
mutual assured destruction (MAD)
the doctrine that if one nation attacked another with nuclear weapons, the other would be capable of retaliating and would retaliate with such force as to assure mutual destruction
deterence
the idea that nations would be less likely to engage in nuclear war if adversaries each had first-strike capability
Cold War
the political, ideological, and military conflicts that lasted from 1945 until 1990 between communist nations led by the Soviet Union and Western democracies led by the United States
domino theory
the principle that if one nation fell to communism, other nations in its geographic vicinity would also succumb
preventive war
the strategy of waging war on countries regarded as threatening in order to avoid future conflicts
SALT II
treaty sign in 1979 by the United States and the Soviet Union that set an overall limit on strategic nuclear launchers, limited the number of missiles that could carry multiple independently targeted reentry vehicles (MIRVs) with nuclear warheads, and limited each nation to the development of only one new type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
SALT I
treaty signed in 1972 by the United States and the Soviet Union limiting the two countries' anti-ballistic missiles and freezing the number of offensive missiles that each nation could have at the number they already possessed, plus the number they had under construction