World Affairs

Austrian State Treaty

1955 - 1955 in Vienna at the Schloss Belvedere among the Allied occupying powers: France, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Austrian government and officially came into force on July 27, 1955.

Ferghana Valley

An area in Uzbekistan walled off by mountains with an extremely dense population. Some ethnic differences.

Diego Garcia

Atoll in the Indian Ocean with a large runway that the US and Indian navies use for drills.

Azerbaijan & Armenia

Azerbaijan holds Naxcivan in Armenia and Armenia holds Nagorno-Karabakh region in Azerbaijan

Afghanistan and Bhutan

British buffer states for India

Durand Line

Established to separate Pashto people in Afghanistan and Pakistan (then India)

Ambalat

Indonesia & Malaysia dispute this oil-rich sea area

IMF

International Monetary Fund - the world's primary organization devoted to maintaining monetary stability by helping countries to fund balance-of-payment deficits. Established 1947, over 180 members.

Class A Mandates

Iraq, Palestine, Syria

Class B Mandates

Rwanda & Burundi, Tanganyika, Cameroon, Togoland

Chemical Weapons Convention

The Chemical Weapons Convention entered into force in 1997. The Convention prohibits all development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer and use of chemical weapons. It imposes reporting requirements, as well as inspections on chemical weapons sites located inside participating states. In 2006, 179 states were parties to the Convention. The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons was created by the United Nations to provide oversight for the compliance of participants.

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees

The Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees establishes the basic rights of protection for refugees who are forced to leave their country of origin out of a well-founded fear of persecution. The Convention guarantees rights to those seeking asylum and states that refugees will not be forcibly returned to their state of origin as long as the threat of persecution continues. Entered into force in 1954, the Convention had 140 parties as of 2006. Although the United States is not a state party to the Convention, it is a party to its Protocol, which incorporates all the Convention provisions subject to some limitations.

European Union

The Western European regional organization established in 1983 when the Maastricht Treaty went into effect. The EU encompasses the still legally existing European Community, the EEC and EURATOM.

carrying capacity

The number of people that an environment, such as the Earth, can feed, provide water for, and otherwise sustain

Group of 7

The seven economically largest free market countries: Canada, France, Germany, UK, Italy, Japan, the US, and now also Russia, making it the group of 8.

Duverget's law

a 2-party system is created when parliament is elected by plurality in single-member districts; a multi-party system is created in proportional representation

import substitution

a government policy that uses trade restrictions and subsidies to encourage domestic production of manufactured goods

containment

a policy adopted in the late 1940s by which the US sought to halt the global expansion of Soviet influence on several levels-military, political, ideology, & economic

autarchy

complete self-sufficiency

difference feminism

values the unique contributions of women as women, believes gender differences are not just socially constructed & that views women inherently less warlike than men

Traety of Rapallo

"1920 - treaty between Italy and the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes), issued to solve the dispute over some territories in current Slovenia and Croatia. It was signed on 12 November 1920 in Rapallo near Genoa in Italy. Tension between the kingdoms of Italy and Yugoslavia arose at the end of World War I, when the Empire of Austria-Hungary dissolved and Italy wanted to implement the borders agreed upon in the London Pact. 1922 - Treaty between Germany and the Soviet Union, signed at Rapallo, Italy. Negotiated by Germany's Walther Rathenau and the Soviet Union's Georgy V. Chicherin, it reestablished normal relations between the two nations. The nations agreed to cancel all financial claims against each other, and the treaty strengthened their economic and military ties. As the first agreement concluded by Germany as an independent agent since World War I, it angered the Western Allies."

Neutrality act

"1937 - a law that unsuccessfully attempted to keep the United States out of international conflicts, including civil wars. Major provisions included: - a prohibition of exporting arms to belligerent nations - a ban on loans to belligerents, except short-term credits - American citizens were prohibited from travelling on belligerent vessels - American ships trading with belligerents were required to remain unarmed - American ships were forbidden from carrying arms to belligerents (see Cash and Carry) - belligerent governments and rebels were forbidden from soliciting funds from American citizens In addition, the President had the optional authority to: - require all exports to belligerents be on a Cash and Carry basis - ban the export of selected goods and raw material to belligerents - block American ports from use by belligerent warships - exclude belligerent submarines and armed merchant vessels from American waters.

Red Guards

"1966-76: were a mass movement of civilians, mostly students and other young people, who were mobilized by Mao Zedong and his allies to defeat their enemies within the struggle for power officially called the Cultural Revolution, between 1966 and 1976. Initially under the control of the Cultural Revolution Group within the Communist Party leadership, led by Mao's principal allies, Vice-Chairman Lin Biao and Mao's wife Jiang Qing, the Red Guards soon got out of control and divided into many factions, some of which fought against each other, bringing the country to the brink of civil war by 1969."

What is a Protectorate?

"A Protectorate is a relationship between a strong sovereign state and a semisovereign state or an area not recognized as a state. Two traditional reasons for their establishment: -To thwart the interests of third states -To administer law in order in an area where no responsible government exists"

"Let one hundred flowers bloom"

"Chairman Mao Zedong's" "Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend"". This slogan was used during the period of approximately six weeks in the summer of 1957 when the Chinese intelligentsia were invited to criticize the political system then obtaining in Communist China. It is sometimes suggested that the initiative was a deliberate attempt to flush out dissidents by encouraging them to show themselves as critical of the regime. Whether or not it was a deliberate trap isn't clear but it is the case that many of those who put forward views that were unwelcome to Mao were executed."

logic of appropriateness

"How should I behave in this situation?"

Russian Provisional Government

"Mar 1917 - The Russian Provisional Government was formed in Petrograd after the deterioration of the Russian Empire and the tsar's abdication. When the authority of the Tsar's government began disintegrating in the February Revolution of 1917, two rival institutions, the Duma and the Petrograd Soviet, competed for power. When Tsar Nicholas II abdicated on March 15 and his brother, Grand Duke Michael refused the throne the next day. According to the will of the Grand Duke, the provisional government should rule until the Constituent Assembly determines the form of government in Russia. Provisional government should provide elections to the Assembly. Its power was effectively limited by the Petrograd Soviet's growing authority. The Soviet controlled the army, factories and railways and had the support of the workers, so this was a period of dual authority, although at first the Soviet had given support to the Provisional Government."

logic of consequences

"What will happen to me if I behave this way?"

Colony

1. an ocean separates the colony from the sovereign 2. there is a racial, ethnic, or cultural difference 3. the people must have made an effort for self government and elected the sovereign

UN Convention on the Law of the Sea

1. territorial waters: 12 nautical miles 2. EEZ: 200 n.m., 350 with extension of continental shelf. 3. Rights of passage through straits and territorial waters 4. right of innocent passage 5. freedom of scientific research

Platt Amendment

1901 â€" Amendment to the Cuban Constitution based on a clause in a bill drafted by Senator Orville H. Platt. It said the United States could intervene in Cuban affairs to keep order or maintain independence and could buy or lease sites for naval and coaling stations (the main one was Guantánamo Bay). The amendment also barred Cuba from making a treaty that gave another nation power over its affairs, going into debt, or stopping the United States from imposing a sanitation program on the island.

Venezuelan Crisis (vs. Britain)

1902-1903 â€" In December and January 1902-1903, “in an attempt to force payments on debts owed their nationals, Britain and Germany seized Venezuelan gunboats, bombarded some of its forts, and blockaded five ports,†according to Dallek. A public outcry against European intervention in Latin America convinced Teddy Roosevelt that he should try to prevent further interventions, leading eventually to the Roosevelt Corollary, announced in December 1904.

Panama Taken

1903 â€" After Columbia balked at the terms of the Hay-Herrán Treaty, which would have allowed the United States to take control of a Canal Zone across the Isthmus of Panama to construct a canal, Roosevelt found another way. He sent signals to Panamanian insurrectionists that the U.S. would support a revolt against Columbian rule of the province. When the insurrection came in November 1903, U.S. warships blocked Columbian troops from reinforcing a weak force on the Isthmus and Roosevelt hastily recognized the new country. The U.S. signed a more favorable treaty with the new Panama, giving the U.S. rights to a ten-mile wide Canal Zone “in perpetuity.â€

Panama Canal Construction Begins

1904 â€" Construction lasted until 1914 and thousands died of disease and injury.

Treaty of Portsmouth

1905 â€" Treaty negotiated by Roosevelt in Portsmouth, New Hampshire between Russia and Japan, ending the Russo-Japanese War. Key was that it preserved the “Open Door†to China, a U.S. policy to allow free trade with that country.

Anglo-French Condominium of the New Hebrides

1906: Joint agreement between England and France for cooperative government in the Pacific

Lusitania

1915 â€" British liner sunk off the Irish coast by a German submarine on May 7, 1915. 1,198 people lost their lives, 128 of whom were U.S. citizens. A warning to Americans against taking passage on British vessels, signed by the Imperial German Embassy, appeared in morning papers on the day the vessel was scheduled to sail from New York, but too late to accomplish its purpose. The vessel was unarmed, though the Germans made a point of the fact that it carried munitions for the Allies.

Haiti occupied

1915 â€" Despite rhetoric opposing the interventionism of previous administrations, Wilson decided to try to restore order when revolutionary upheaval and bloodshed swept Haiti in the summer of 1915.

Pershing invades Mexico

1916 - A U.S. expeditionary force under Gen. John Pershing invaded Mexico in pursuit of Mexican rebel leader Pancho Villa, who had raided the border town of Columbus, New Mexico.

He Kept Us Out of War

1916 â€" Wilson used this slogan in his 1916 campaign for the presidency. On April 6, 1917, the United States entered the war.

Dominican Republic occupied

1916 â€" the collapse of the government in the Dominican Republic similarly precipitated a U.S. intervention to restore order.

Cantigny

1918 â€" A village of northern France south of Amiens. It was the site of the first major U.S. offensive in World War I on May 28 1918.

Senate Rejects Versailles Treaty

1919 -- Republican Majority Leader and Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Henry Cabot Lodge led opposition to the aspect of Wilson’s League of Nations proposal that would commit the United States to the defense of other members of the League, but Lodge did not oppose the League outright. With Wilson's refusal to compromise, the Senate overwhelmingly rejected the Treaty by wide margins in two votes on November 19.

Mein Kampf

1925 - An autobiography written by Adolf Hitler. In it, Hitler outlines his plan for the revival of Germany from the losses of World War I and blames Germany's problems on capitalists (see capitalism), communists, and Jews.

Locarno, Pact of

1925 - Multilateral treaty signed in Locarno, Switz., intended to guarantee peace in western Europe. Its signatories were Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. Germany's borders with France and Belgium as set by the Treaty of Versailles were decreed inviolable, but its eastern borders were not. Britain promised to defend Belgium and France. Other provisions included mutual defense pacts between France and Poland and between France and Czechoslovakia. The treaty led to the Allied troops' departure from the Rhineland by 1930, five years ahead of schedule. See also Kellogg-Briand Pact.

London Naval Treaty

1930 - Two conferences in London sought to continue and extend naval armaments pacts initially agreed upon at the Washington Naval Conference of 1921â€"1922. At this conference, the United States, Great Britain, Japan, France, and Italy agreed on ratios for battleship and aircraft carrier tonnage in a successful effort to halt what might have been an expensive arms race; the resulting treaty also allowed the British to let the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 terminate. Britain thus avoided being caught in a possible future Japanese-American conflict as an ally of each power.

Smoot Hawley Tariff

1930 - U.S. legislation that raised import duties by as much as 50%, adding considerable strain to the worldwide economic climate of the Great Depression. Despite a petition from 1,000 economists urging Pres. Herbert Hoover to veto the act, it was passed as a protective measure for domestic industries. It contributed to the early loss of confidence on Wall Street and signaled U.S. isolationism. Other countries retaliated with similarly high protective tariffs, and overseas banks began to collapse. In 1934 Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Trade Agreements Act, which reduced such tariffs.

Young Plan

1930 â€" program for settlement of German reparations debts after World War I. Under the previous Dawes plan (1924), it became apparent that Germany could not meet the huge annual payments, especially over an indefinite period of time. The Young Plan â€" which set the total reparations at $26,350,000,000 to be paid over a period of 581/2 years â€"was thus adopted by the Allied Powers in 1930,

Japanese occupation of Manchuria

1931 - Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931â€"32, when Chinese military resistance, sapped by civil war, was weak. The seizure of Manchuria was, in effect, an unofficial declaration of war on China. Manchuria was a base for Japanese aggression in N China and a buffer region for Japanese-controlled Korea. In 1932, under the aegis of Japan, Manchuria with Rehe prov. was constituted Manchukuo, a nominally independent state. During World War II the Japanese developed the Dalian, Anshan, Fushun, Shenyang, and Harbin areas into a huge industrial complex of metallurgical, coal, petroleum, and chemical industries. Soviet forces, which occupied Manchuria from July, 1945, to May, 1946, dismantled and removed over half of the Manchurian industrial plant.

manchukou

1932 - Puppet state created in 1932 by Japan out of the three historic provinces of Manchuria (northeastern China). After the Russo-Japanese War (1895), Japan gained control of the Russian-built South Manchurian Railway, and its army established a presence in the region; expansion there was seen as necessary for Japan's status as an emerging world power. In 1931 the Japanese army created an excuse to attack Chinese troops there, and in 1932 Manchukuo was proclaimed an “independent†state. The last Qing emperor was brought out of retirement and made Manchukuo's ruler, but the state was actually rigidly controlled by the Japanese, who used it as their base for expansion into Asia. An underground guerrilla movement composed of Manchurian soldiers, armed civilians, and Chinese communists opposed the occupying Japanese, many of whom had come over to settle in the new colony. After Japan's defeat in 1945 the settlers were repatriated.

Hitler becomes chancellor

1933 - he suspended the constitution, forcibly suppressed all political opposition and brought the Nazis to power. He enforced policies with a brutal secret police (the Gestapo) and formed concentration camps for the organized murder of Jews, Gypsies and political opponents. Hitler's aggressive foreign policy precipitated World War II in 1939. Although he had remarkable early success in the war, by 1942 the tide had turned. Hitler apparently committed suicide in an air-raid shelter in Berlin in 1945, after the Allied forces had invaded Germany.

Night of the long Knives

1934 - Purge of Nazi leaders by Adolf Hitler. Fearing that the paramilitary SA had become too powerful, Hitler ordered his elite SS guards to murder the organization's leaders, including Ernst Röhm. Also killed that night were hundreds of other perceived opponents of Hitler, including Kurt von Schleicher and Gregor Strasser.

Remilitarization of rhineland

1936 - German Fuhrer Adolf Hitler made up his mind to reoccupy the Rhineland. On 12 February he informed his War Minister, General Werner von Blomberg, of his intentions and asked the head of the Army, General Werner von Fritsch, how long it would take to transport a few infantry battalions and a artillery battery into the Rhineland. Fritsch answered that it would take three days organisation but he was in favour of negotiation as he believed that the German Army was in no state for armed combat with the French Army.[2] General Ludwig Beck warned Hitler that the German Army would be unable to successfully defend Germany against a possible retaliatory French attack.[3] Hitler reassured Fritsch that he would ensure that the German forces would leave at once if the French intervened militarily to halt their advance.

Spanish Civil War

1936â€"39: Military revolt against the government of Spain. After the 1936 elections produced a Popular Front government supported mainly by left-wing parties, a military uprising began in garrison towns throughout Spain, led by the rebel Nationalists and supported by conservative elements in the clergy, military, and landowners as well as the fascist Falange. The ruling Republican government, led by the socialist premiers Francisco Largo Caballero and Juan NegrÃn (1894â€"1956) and the liberal president Manuel Azaña y DÃaz, was supported by workers and many in the educated middle class as well as militant anarchists and communists. Government forces put down the uprising in most regions except parts of northwestern and southwestern Spain, where the Nationalists held control and named Francisco Franco head of state.

Quarantine Speech

1937 â€" A response to Japanese actions in Manchuria and Italian actions in Abyssinia, in the face of which the League of Nations was impotent. In this speech in Chicago, FDR called for an international "quarantine of the aggressor nations" through economic pressure. This was an attempted alternative to American neutrality and isolationism, though it intensified America's isolationist mood.

Rape of Nanking

1937-1938 â€" describes Japanese treatment of the citizens of Nanking, China, during the Japanese occupation of China. A 1997 book by Iris Chang of the same name extensively documents Japanese conduct, which included the slaughter of more than 300,000 people and the rape of thousands of women and girls.

Munich Agreement

1938 - Settlement reached by Germany, France, Britain, and Italy permitting German annexation of Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland. Adolf Hitler's threats to occupy the German-populated part of Czechoslovakia stemmed from his avowed broader goal of reuniting Europe's German-populated areas. Though Czechoslovakia had defense treaties with France and the Soviet Union, both countries agreed that areas in the Sudetenland with majority German populations should be returned. Hitler demanded that all Czechoslovaks in those areas depart; when Czechoslovakia refused, Britain's Neville Chamberlain negotiated an agreement permitting Germany to occupy the areas but promising that all future differences would be resolved through consultation. The agreement, which became synonymous with appeasement, was abrogated when Hitler annexed the rest of Czechoslovakia the next year.

Soviet-Finnish War

1939â€"40 - War waged by the Soviet Union against Finland at the start of World War II, following the signing of the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. When Finland refused to grant the Soviets a naval base and other concessions, Soviet troops attacked on several fronts in November 1939. The heavily outnumbered Finns under Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim put up a skillful defense until February 1940, when heavy Russian bombardments breached the Finns' southern defenses. A peace treaty in March 1940 ceded western Karelia to Russia and allowed construction of a Soviet naval base on the Hanko peninsula.

Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

1940 - It is remembered today in the West largely as a front for the Japanese control of Axis-occupied countries during World War II, in which puppet governments manipulated local populations and economies for the benefit of wartime Japan. It was an Imperial Japanese Army concept which originated with General Hachiro Arita, who at the time was minister of foreign affairs and an army ideologist. "Greater East Asia" (大æ±äºœ, Dai-tÅ-a) was a Japanese term (banned during the post-war occupation) referring to East Asia, Southeast Asia and surrounding areas.

Katyn forest massacre

1940 - Mass killing of Polish military officers by the Soviet Union in World War II. After the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (1939) and Germany's defeat of Poland, Soviet forces occupied eastern Poland and interned thousands of Polish military personnel. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union (1941), the Polish government-in-exile agreed to cooperate with the Soviets against Germany, and the Polish general forming the new army asked to have the Polish prisoners placed under his command, but the Soviet government informed him in December 1941 that most of those prisoners had escaped to Manchuria and could not be located.

Annexation of Baltic States

1940 - The direct Soviet aggression against the Baltic countries occurred on 14-17 June 1940 when the world's attention was focused on the military actions in Western Europe where Paris fell to the Germans on 14 June. Accusing Estonia of forming a conspiracy together with Latvia and Lithuania against the Soviet Union, the latter presented an ultimatum, demanding new concessions which included allowing more troops to enter the three countries. In the conditions of international isolation, the governments surrendered without offering any military resistance, and within a few days, the countries were invaded and occupied by several hundred thousand soldiers of the Red Army. A few days later days, led by Stalin's close associates, the local communist supporters and those brought in from Russia, formally forced the Baltic governments to resign and proclaimed new "people's governments" in the three occupied countries.

Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.â€

1940 â€" Franklin Roosevelt campaign promise of 1940, though he had already begun some preparations for war.

First peacetime draft

1940 â€" The Selective Training and Service Act required men between the ages of twenty-one and thirty-five to register at local draft boards across the country on October 16, 1940. Over sixteen million men registered. Two weeks later, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt watched as Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson plucked the first number in the draft from a bowl. The number was one hundred fifty-eight; 6,175 men across the nation held that honor and were required to report for duty.

Lend Lease

1941 â€" arrangement for the transfer of war supplies, including food, machinery, and services, to nations whose defense was considered vital to the defense of the United States in World War II. The Lend-Lease Act, passed (1941) by the U.S. Congress, gave the President power to sell, transfer, lend, or lease such war materials. Originally intended for China and Britain, though the USSR was added later.

Stalingrad

1942â€"43: Unsuccessful German assault on the Soviet city in World War II. German forces invaded the Soviet Union in 1941 and had advanced to the suburbs of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) by the summer of 1942. Met by a determined Red Army defense commanded by Vasily Chuikov, they reached the city's centre after fierce street fighting. In November the Soviets counterattacked and encircled the German army led by Friedrich Paulus, who surrendered in February 1943 with 91,000 troops. The Axis forces (Germans, Romanians, Italians, and Hungarians) suffered 800,000 deaths; in excess of 1,000,000 Soviet soldiers died. The battle marked the farthest extent of the German advance into the Soviet Union.

Manhattan Project

1942â€"45: U.S. government research project that produced the first atomic bomb. In 1939 U.S. scientists urged Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish a program to study the potential military use of fission, and $6,000 was appropriated. By 1942 the project was code-named Manhattan, after the site of Columbia University, where much of the early research was done. Research also was carried out at the University of California and the University of Chicago. In 1943 a laboratory to construct the bomb was established at Los Alamos, N.M., and staffed by scientists headed by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Production also was carried out at Oak Ridge, Tenn., and Hanford, Wash. The first bomb was exploded in a test at Alamogordo air base in southern New Mexico. By its end the project had cost some $2 billion and had involved 125,000 people.

Teheran Conference

1943 - From 28 November to 1 December 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Marshal Joseph Stalin met at Teheran, the capital of Iran, to coordinate Western military plans with those of the Soviet Union. Most important of all, the "big three" drew up the essential victory strategy in Europe, one based on a cross-channel invasion called Operation Overlord and scheduled for May 1944. The plan included a partition of Germany, but left all details to a three-power European Advisory Commission. It granted Stalin's request that Poland's new western border should be at the Oder River and that the eastern one follow the lines drafted by British diplomat Lord Curzon in 1919. The conference tacitly concurred in Stalin's conquests of 1939 and 1940, these being Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and a slice of Finland. Stalin reiterated his promise, made in October 1943 at Moscow, to enter the war against Japan upon the defeat of Germany, but he expected compensation in the form of tsarist territories taken by Japan in 1905. On 1 December 1943, the three powers issued a declaration that welcomed potential allies into "a world family of democratic nations" and signed a separate protocol recognizing the "independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity" of Iran.

Bretton Woods Agreement

1944 agreement made in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, which helped to establish a fixed exchange rate in terms of gold for major currencies. The International Monetary Fund was also established at this time.

The Bulge

1944 â€" The last major offensive by the German army in World War II. In late 1944, the invasion of Belgium by the Allies was temporarily stopped by a German counterattack in which the Germans broke through the Allied defenses, seizing territory that caused a large “bulge†in their lines. The Allies, led by General George Patton, drove the German forces back with heavy casualties on both sides.

Iwo Jima

1945 â€" The Battle of Iwo Jima was fought between the United States and Japan during February and March of 1945. As a result of the battle, the United States gained control of the island of Iwo Jima and the airfield there. The battle is famous for the raising of the US flag by U.S. Marines.

Nuremberg Trials

1945-46: International Military Tribunal tried high Nazi officials for actions committed during World War II that contravened the accepted laws of war. Among the practices condemned were plotting and waging aggressive war, using slave labor, looting occupied countries, and abusing and murdering civilians (especially the Jews) and prisoners of war. The Allies' decision to try major Axis officials for war crimes had been announced in October 1943, when the American, British, and Russian foreign ministers met in Moscow. Planning for the trials began soon after V-J Day, and the tribunal opened in Nuremberg, Germany, on November 20, 1945, before a board of distinguished judges from the Allied countries. Adolf Hitler, Heinrich Himmler, and Josef Goebbels had committed suicide by that time, but Hermann Goering, Joachim Ribbentrop, Wilhelm Keitel, Alfred Jodl, Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Julius Streicher, Hjalmar Schacht, Martin Bormann (in absentia), and sixteen others were tried one by one for individually specified crimes.

The Long Telegram

1946 - a cable sent by George Kennan while serving at the U.S. embassy to the Soviet Union in Moscow, in which he outlined the policy of containment that the US would adopt for most of the Cold War. Later, Kennan would anonymously publish a version of the telegram as the X Article in the journal Foreign Affairs.

Two Camps Doctrine (Zhdanov Doctrine)

1946 - was a Soviet cultural doctrine developed by the Central Committee secretary Andrei Zhdanov in 1946. It proposed that the world was divided into two camps: the imperialistic, headed by the United States and "democratic", headed by the Soviet Union. Zhdanovism soon became a Soviet cultural policy, meaning the injunction on all Soviet artists, writers and intelligentsia in general to conform to the party line and has been continued until the "thaw" under Khrushchev. Zhdanovism also penetrated and took thorough control of what was left of Albanian literature in the 1950's.

Cominform

1947 - Agency of international communism founded under Soviet auspices in 1947. Its original members were the Communist Parties of the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, France, and Italy, but Yugoslavia was expelled in 1948. The Cominform's activities consisted mainly of publishing propaganda to encourage international communist solidarity. It was dissolved by Soviet initiative in 1956 as part of a Soviet program of reconciliation with Yugoslavia.

Founding of Pakistan

1947 - British as part of India and became a separate Muslim state in 1947. The country originally included the Bengalese territory of East Pakistan, which achieved its separate independence in 1971 as Bangladesh. Pakistan became a republic in 1956. Islamabad is the capital and Karachi the largest city.

Independence of India

1947 - The British Labour government of Prime Minister Attlee in 1946 offered self-government to India, but it warned that if no agreement was reached between the Congress and the Muslim League, Great Britain, on withdrawing in June, 1948, would have to determine the apportionment of power between the two groups. Reluctantly the Congress agreed to the creation of Pakistan, and in Aug., 1947, British India was divided into the dominions of India and Pakistan. The princely states were nominally free to determine their own status, but realistically they were unable to stand alone. Partly by persuasion and partly by coercion, they joined one or the other of the new dominions. Hyderabad, in S central India, with a Muslim ruler and Hindu population, held out to the last and was finally incorporated (1948) into the Indian union by force. The future of Kashmir was not resolved.

Rio Pact

1947 â€" the Inter-American Reciprocal Assistance Treaty was signed in Rio de Janeiro in 1947 by the United States and 19 Latin American countries. The Rio Pact, which served as a model for NATO, provides for collective defense against aggression from outside the region. Clearly aimed at the Soviet Union, the Rio Pact became the cornerstone of hemispheric security during the Cold War; 23 countries eventually became members.

Truman Doctrine

1947. To contain communism, Truman, in an address to Congress, said the U.S. would support "free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.†Congress appropriate $400 million in economic assistance for Greece and Turkey.

NATO

1948 - International military alliance created to defend western Europe against a possible Soviet invasion. A 1948 collective-defense alliance between Britain, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg was recognized as inadequate to deter Soviet aggression, and in 1949 the U.S. and Canada agreed to join their European allies in an enlarged alliance. A centralized administrative structure was set up, and three major commands were established, focused on Europe, the Atlantic, and the English Channel (disbanded in 1994). The admission of West Germany in 1955 led to the Soviet Union's creation of the opposing Warsaw Treaty Organization, or Warsaw Pact. France withdrew from military participation in 1966.

Berlin Blockade

1948-1949 â€" Instituted by the Soviet Union in the hope that the Allies would be forced to abandon West Berlin. The Berlin Airlift, a massive effort to supply the 2 million West Berliners with food and fuel for heating began in June, 1948, and lasted until Sept., 1949, although the Russians lifted the blockade in May of that year. During the around-the-clock airlift some 277,000 flights were made delivering an average of 8,000 tons of supplies daily.

COMECON

1949 - Council for Mutual Economic Assistance: Organization founded in 1949 to facilitate and coordinate the economic development of Soviet-bloc countries. Its original members were the Soviet Union, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, and Romania; other members joined later, including Albania (1949) and the German Democratic Republic (1950). Its accomplishments included the organization of Eastern Europe's railroad grid, the creation of the International Bank for Economic Cooperation, and the construction of the “Friendship†oil pipeline. After the political upheavals in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, it largely lost its purpose and power. In 1991 it was renamed the Organization for International Economic Cooperation.

Point Four

1949 - a foreign aid program to assist the poor in so-called underdeveloped countries. In his second inaugural address in 1949, President Harry S. Truman called for this "bold new program" as part of an overall effort to promote peace and freedom. Inviting other nations to participate, he called for the program to be a "worldwide effort" for the achievement of "peace, plenty, and freedom" through technical assistance, private foreign investment, and greater production. In the first phase of the Cold War, and in the wake of the TRUMAN DOCTRINE, the MARSHALL PLAN, and the creation of the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION, Point Four was designed as an offer to the emerging nations to decide against communismâ€"to become neutral or non-aligned.

Soviet Union explodes A bomb

1949 â€" On August 29, the Soviet Union became the second country to test an atomic bomb, ending the U.S. monopoly on the weapon.

NSC 68

1950 â€" A classified document written by Paul Nitze and issued by the Truman National Security Council on April 14, 1950. Inspired by Kennan’s Long Telegram, the report outlined a strategy of communist containment. NSC-68 would shape government actions in the Cold War for the next 20 years and has subsequently been labeled the "blueprint" for the Cold War.

Death of Stalin

1953 - He continued his repressive political measures to control internal dissent; increasingly paranoid, he was preparing to mount another purge after the so-called Doctors' Plot when he died. Noted for bringing the Soviet Union into world prominence, at terrible cost to his own people, he left a legacy of repression and fear as well as industrial and military power. In 1956 Stalin and his personality cult were denounced by Nikita Khrushchev.

Massive Retaliation

1954 â€" U.S. nuclear strategy under Eisenhower. Eisenhower’s Secretary of State John Foster Dulles said in a speech on January 12, 1954, to the Council on Foreign Relations: 'Local defense must be reinforced by the further deterrent of massive retaliatory power.'

CENTO

1955 - Central Treaty Organization: Mutual-security organization, originally composed of Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Britain. It was formed in 1955, at the urging of the U.S. and Britain, to counter the threat of Soviet expansion into the Middle East. CENTO was never very effective. Iraq withdrew after its anti-Soviet monarchy was overthrown in 1959. In that same year the U.S. became an associate member, and CENTO's headquarters were moved to Ankara, Tur. After the fall of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1979, Iran withdrew and CENTO was dissolved.

Warsaw Pact

1955 - Military alliance of the Soviet Union, Albania (until 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Romania, formed in 1955 in response to West Germany's entry into NATO. Its terms included a unified military command and the stationing of Soviet troops in the other member states. Warsaw Pact troops were called into action to suppress uprisings in Poland (1956), Hungary (1956), and Czechoslovakia (1968). The alliance was dissolved in 1991 after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and Soviet troops departed. Several Warsaw Pact members later joined NATO.

SEATO

1955â€"77: comprising Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand, Britain, and the U.S. It was founded as part of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty in order to protect the region from communism. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos were not considered for membership, and other countries in the region preferred membership in the nonaligned movement. SEATO had no standing forces, but its members engaged in combined military exercises. Pakistan withdrew in 1968, and France suspended financial support in 1975. The organization was disbanded officially in 1977.

Eisenhower Doctrine

1957 - U.S. foreign policy pronouncement by Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1957). The Eisenhower Doctrine promised military and economic aid to anticommunist governments, at a time when communist countries were providing arms to Egypt and offering strong support to Arab states. Part of the Cold War policy developed by John Foster Dulles to contain expansion of the Soviet sphere of influence, the doctrine continued pledges made under the Truman Doctrine.

Great Leap Forward

1958 - Failed industrialization campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960. Mao Zedong hoped to develop labour-intensive methods of industrialization that would emphasize manpower rather than the gradual purchase of heavy machinery, thereby putting to use China's dense population and obviating the need to accumulate capital. Rather than building large new factories, he proposed developing backyard steel furnaces in every village. Rural people were organized into communes where agricultural and political decisions emphasized ideological purity rather than expertise. The program was implemented so hastily and zealously that many errors occurred; these were exacerbated by a series of natural disasters and the withdrawal of Soviet technical personnel. China's agriculture was severely disrupted, causing widespread famine in 1958â€"62. By early 1960 the government had begun to repeal the Great Leap Forward; private plots were returned to peasants, and expertise began to be emphasized again.

U-2 Incident

1960 - Confrontation between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. On May 1, 1960, the Soviet Union shot down a U.S. U-2 reconnaissance plane and called the flight an “aggressive act.†The U.S. denied Soviet claims that the pilot, F. Gary Powers, had stated that his mission was to collect Soviet intelligence data. Nikita Khrushchev declared that the Soviet Union would not take part in a scheduled summit conference with the U.S., Britain, and France unless the U.S. immediately stopped flights over Soviet territory, apologized, and punished those responsible. Pres. Dwight D. Eisenhower agreed only to the first stipulation, and the conference was adjourned. Powers was tried in the Soviet Union and sentenced to 10 years in prison; in 1962 he was exchanged for the Soviet spy Rudolf Abel.

Alliance for Progress

1961 - International development program. Initiated by the U.S. and joined by 22 Latin American countries in 1961, it aimed to strengthen democratic government and promote social and economic reforms in Latin America. The program, which provided loans and aid from the U.S. and the international financial community, built some schools and hospitals, but by the early 1970s it was widely viewed as a failure. Significant land reform was not achieved, population growth outstripped gains in health and welfare, and the U.S. willingness to support military dictators to prevent communism from gaining a foothold sowed distrust and undermined the reforms the Alliance was intended to promote.

Sino-Indian War

1962: Dispute over the Himalayan border between India and China.

Cultural Revolution

1966-76: Upheaval launched by Mao Zedong to renew the spirit of revolution in China. Mao feared urban social stratification in a society as traditionally elitist as China and also believed that programs instituted to correct for the failed Great Leap Forward showed that his colleagues lacked commitment to the revolution. He organized China's urban youths into groups called the Red Guards, shut down China's schools, and encouraged the Red Guards to attack all traditional values and “bourgeois things.†They soon splintered into zealous rival groups, and in 1968 Mao sent millions of them to the rural hinterland, bringing some order to the cities. Within the government, a coalition of Mao's associates fought with more moderate elements, many of whom were purged, were verbally attacked, were physically abused, and subsequently died; leaders Liu Shaoqi and Lin Biao both died under mysterious circumstances. From 1973 to Mao's death in 1976, politics shifted between the hard-line Gang of Four and the moderates headed by Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. After Mao's death the Cultural Revolution was brought to a close. By that time, nearly three million party members and countless wrongfully purged citizens awaited reinstatement. The Cultural Revolution subsequently was repudiated in China. See also Jiang Qing.

Prague Spring

1968 - Brief period of liberalization in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubcek. In April 1968 he instituted agricultural and industrial reforms, a revised constitution to guarantee civil rights, autonomy for Slovakia, and democratization of the government and the Communist Party. By June, many Czechs were calling for more rapid progress toward real democracy. Although Dubcek believed he could control the situation, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact countries, alarmed by the threat of a social-democratic Czechoslovakia, invaded the country in August, deposed Dubcek, and gradually restored control by reinstalling hard-line communists as leaders.

NPT

1968 - International agreement intended to prevent the spread of nuclear technology. It was signed by the U.S., Britain, the Soviet Union, and 59 other countries in 1968. The three major signatories agreed not to assist states lacking nuclear weapons to obtain or produce them; the nonnuclear signatories agreed not to attempt to obtain nuclear weapons in exchange for assistance in developing nuclear power for peaceful purposes. France and China, both nuclear powers, declined to ratify the treaty until 1992, and some nuclear powers, including Israel and Pakistan, have never signed it. In 1995, when the treaty was due to expire, it was extended indefinitely by a consensus vote of 174 countries at the United Nations.

Tet Offensive

1968 - The offensive began spectacularly during celebrations of the Lunar New Year and lasted about two months however sporadic operations associated with the offensive continued into 1969. The Tet offensive was a tactical defeat for the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese army, but it is widely seen as the turning point of the war that led to the eventual withdrawal of American forces.

What year did the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty take effect? What countries had nues then and now?

1970. U.S., U.K., China, Russia, France had them then. Today Israel, Pakistan, and India do also.

Communist takeover of Mozambique

1975 - In reaction to the independence agreement, a group of white rebels attempted to seize control of the Mozambique government but were quickly subdued by Portuguese and Frelimo troops. As black rule of Mozambique became a reality (with Machel as president) and as increased racial violence erupted, there was an exodus of Europeans from Mozambique. As the Portuguese left, they took their valuable skills and machinery, which had an adverse effect on the economy. Frelimo established a single-party Marxist state, nationalized all industry, and abolished private land ownership. Frelimo also instituted health and education reforms.

Communist takeover of Angola

1976 - Portugal granted Angola independence in 1975 and the MPLA assumed control of the government in Luanda; Agostinho Neto became president. The FNLA and UNITA, however, proclaimed a coaliton government in Nova Lisboa (now Huambo), but by early 1976 the MPLA had gained control of the whole country. Most of the European population fled the political and economic upheaval that followed independence, taking their investments and technical expertise with them. When Neto died in 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos succeeded him as president. In the 1970s and 80s the MPLA government received large amounts of aid from Cuba and the Soviet Union, while the United States supported first the FNLA and then UNITA

Communist takeover of Ethiopia

1977 - Lt. Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam became head of the PMAC, which soon diverted from its announced socialist course. A popular movement, the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Party, began a campaign of urban guerrilla activity that was contained by government-organized urban militias in 1977. Under the Mengistu regime, thousands of political opponents were purged, property was confiscated, and defense spending was greatly increased.

Communist takeover of Grenada

1979 - a successful, bloodless coup established the People's Revolutionary Government (PRG) under Prime Minister Maurice Bishop. This government's Marxist leanings and favorable stance toward Cuba and the Soviet Union strained relations with the United States and other nations in the region. In Oct., 1983, after Bishop and his associates were assassinated by more hard-line radicals within his own movement, the United States, with token forces from other Caribbean nations, invaded and occupied Grenada. A general election held in Dec., 1984, reestablished democratic government, with Herbert Blaize as prime minister.

Communist takeover of Nicaragua

1981 - Nicaragua was taken over by the Sandinista party after a popular revolt. The Sandinistas were then opposed by armed insurgents, the U.S.-backed Contras, from 1981. The Sandinista government nationalized several sectors of the economy but lost national elections in 1990. The new government reprivatized many public enterprises. Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega returned to power after winning the presidential election of 2006.

Kurds

25 million Kurds split across 4 countries

Kashmir

4 wars over Kashmir between Pakistan and India, including the Kargil Conflict

What is the Latin American Integration Association?

A Latin American trade integration association, based in Montevideo. Its main objective is the establishment of a common market, in pursuit of the economic and social development of the region. Its members are Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. It is the successor to LAFTA.

What is a Leasehold?

A Leasehold is an area used by a foreign state under an agreement with the sovereign state that owns the area.

What is the Revisionist Approach to Foreign Policy?

A Revisionst approach to foreign policy seeks to alter territorial, ideological, or power distribution to the state's advantage.

balance of terror

A balance of power between nations with nuclear weapons. MAD.

US-Japanese Security Treaty

A bilateral alliance between the United States and Japan, created in 1951 against the potential Soviet threat to Japan. The United States maintains troops in Japan and is committed to defend Japan if attacked, and Japan pays the United States to offset about half the cost of maintaining the troops.

UN Security Council

A body of five great powers (which can veto resolutions) and ten rotating member states, which makes decisions about international peace and security including the dispatch of UN peacekeeping forces.

Belleau Wood

A forested area of northern France. In June 1918, it was the site of a hard-fought and bloody American victory over the Germans. This battle was signicant in that it stopped a German advance toward Paris

irredentism

A form of nationalism whose goal is the regaining of territory lost to another state; it can lead directly to violent interstate conflicts.

corporatism

A method of co-optation whereby authoritarian systems create or sanction a limited number of organizations to represent the interests of the public and restrict those not set up or approved by the state.

structural adjustment program

A policy of economic liberalization adopted in exchange for financial support from the International Monetary Fund, often coming with conditions imposed.

fascism

A political ideology that asserts the superiority and inferiority of different groups of people and stresses a low degree of both freedom and equality in order to achieve a powerful state.

Demagogue

A politician who seeks to win and hold office by appeals to mass prejudice.

What is Imperialism?

A relationship in which an area and its people are made subject to the will of a foreign state.

What is the International Labour Organization (ILO)?

A specialized agency of the United Nations to deal with labour issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a UN body after the demise of the League and the formation of the UN at the end of World War II. The organization seeks to strengthen worker rights, improve working conditions and living conditions, create employment, and provide information and training opportunities.

Gini index

A statistical formula that measures the amount of economic inequality within a country. "0" corresponds with perfect equality and "100" represents perfect inequality.

UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

A structure established in 1964 to promote third world development through various trade proposals.

neocorporatism

A system of social democratic policy making in which a limited number of organizations representing business and labor work with the state to set economic policy.

monetarism

A theory holding that economic variations within a given system, such as changing rates of inflation, are most often caused by increases or decreases in the money supply; A policy that seeks to regulate an economy by altering the domestic money supply, especially by increasing it in a moderate but steady manner (dictionary.com definition)

social Darwinism

A theory that competition between all individuals, groups, nations or ideas drives social evolution in human societies. The term is an extension of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution where competition between individual organisms drives biological evolutionary change (speciation) through the survival of the fittest.

What is the Andean community?

A trade bloc comprising the South American countries of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela. The trade bloc was formerly called the Andean Pact and came into existence with the signing of the Cartagena Agreement in 1969. Its headquarters are located in Lima, Peru. The Andean Community has 120 million inhabitants living in an area of 4,700,000 square kilometers, whose Gross Domestic Product amounted to US$260 billion in 2002. The Andean Community together with Mercosur comprises the two main trading blocs of South America. In 1999 these organizations began negotiating a merger with a view to creating a South American Free Trade Area (SAFTA). On December 8, 2004 it signed a cooperation agreement with Mercosur and they published a joint letter of intention for future negotiations towards integrating all of South America in the context of the South American Community of Nations, patterned after the European Union.

neorealism

A version of realist theory that emphasizes the influence on state behavior of the system’s structure, especially the international distribution of power.

Liancourt Rocks

Aka Dokdo. Disputed between Japan and South Korea in the Sea of Japan.

Marshall Plan

Also known as the European Recovery Program, this plan of Western assistance was hatched at the Paris Economic Conference in July 1947. U.S. Secretary of State George Marshall had urged the development of a plan to foster economic recovery in Germany and other European countries in the wake of the war. In April 1948, President Truman signed the act establishing the Economic Cooperation Administration (ECA) to administer the program.

Sinn Fein

An Irish political party that has long combatted Britains' influence in Ireland

postmodernism

An approach that denies the existence of a single fixed reality, and pays special attention to texts and to discourses -- that is, to how people talk and write about a subject.

postmodern feminism

An effort to combine feminist and postmodernist perspectives with the aim of uncovering the hidden influences of gender in IR and showing how arbitrary the construction of gender roles is.

first past the post

An electoral system in which individual candidates compete in single member districts; voters choose between candidates and the candidate with the largest share of the vote wins the seat.

liberalism

An ideology and political system that favors a limited state role in society and the economy, and places a high priority on individual political and economic freedom.

What is the OECD?

An international organisation of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. It originated in 1948 as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), to help administer the Marshall Plan for the re-construction of Europe after World War II. Later its membership was extended to non-European states, and in 1961 it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Members include most of rich european nations, Japan, South Korea, Australia, NAFTA members, and Turkey. It is based in Paris.

Ombudsman

An official appointed by a government or other organization to investigate complains against people in authority.

What nations are still part of the British Commonwealth?

Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Grenada, Jamaica, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Soloman Islands, Tuvalu, the U.K.

States with claims in Antarctica

Argentina, Australia, Britain, Chile, France, New Zealand, Norway

What is APEC?

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a group of Pacific Rim countries who meet with the purpose of improving economic and political ties. It holds annual meetings in each of the member countries and has standing committees on a wide range of issues, from communications to fisheries. Currently, most countries with a coastline on the Pacific Ocean are members of the organization, with the exception of Colombia and Ecuador in South America, the six Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama, Cambodia and North Korea in Asia and the Pacific Islands, such as Fiji, Tonga and Samoa. Guam has also been actively requesting a separate membership, citing the example of Hong Kong and Taiwan, but the request is objected by USA, which currently represents Guam. The heads of government of all APEC members meet annually in a summit.

What were the results of Eisenhower's 1955 "Open Skies" proposal?

At a Geneva Conference meeting with Soviet Premier Bulganin in 1955, President Eisenhower proposed that the United States and Soviet Union conduct surveillance overflights of each other's territory to reassure each country that the other was not preparing to attack. The fears and suspicions of the Cold War led Soviet General Secretary Nikita Khruschev to reject Eisenhower's proposal. Thirty-four years later, the Open Skies concept was reintroduced by President George H. W. Bush as a means to build confidence and security between all North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) and Warsaw Pact countries. In September 1989, an international Open Skies conference involving all NATO and Warsaw Pact countries opened in Ottawa, Canada. Subsequent rounds of negotiations over the next three years were held in Budapest, Hungary, Vienna, Austria, and Helsinki, Finland. On March 24, 1992, the Open Skies Treaty was signed in Helsinki by Secretary of State James Baker and foreign ministers from 23 other countries. The treaty entered into force on January 2, 2002, after Russia and Belarus completed ratification procedures.

World Health Organization (WHO)

Based in Geneva, it provides technical assistance to improve health conditions in the third world and conducts major immunization campaigns.

What is the Belgium War Crimes Law?

Belgium's War Crimes Law invokes the concept of universal jurisdiction to allow anyone to bring war crime charges in Belgian courts, regardless of where the alleged crimes have taken place. The law took effect in 1993 and was expanded the following year after 10 Belgian soldiers were killed in Rwanda. The law reached prominence after the Rwandan Genocide. According to the Washington Post, the process of prosecution of Rwandans in Belgium for crimes committed in the violence were set in motion by Martine Beckers, a Brussels resident, whose sister Claire called her to tell her of being attacked by soldiers, who soon after killed her, her family, and 10 other villagers who were unable to reach a United Nations peacekeepers' compound.

Trotskyism

Believed that communish should depend on cooperation amonst all nations, not domination by the Soviet Union. Opposed by Stalin.

Elima Triangle

Between Egypt and Sudan. No active dispute.

Preah Vihear Temple

Cambodia & Thailand disputed ownership of the temple; it was awarded to Cambodia

Hans Island

Canada and Denmark dispute this island near Greenland. Canada claims all NW passages as territorial waters.

Who can participate in cases at the ICJ?

Cases can only be between states, both of whom have to accept the jurisdiction of the court to try the case.

postmodern voters

Characterized by a set of values that center on "quality of life" considerations.

What is Chauvinism?

Chauvinism is an extreme superpatriotism which implies an uncritical devotion to a state, jealousy of its honor, and an exaggerated sense of its glory.

What is the oldest ongoing country in the world?

China.

What is Christian Democracy?

Christian Democracy is a political ideology, born at the end of the 19th century, largely as a result of the papal encyclical Rerum Novarum of Pope Leo XIII, in which the Vatican recognized workers' misery and agreed that something should be done about it, in reaction to the rise of the socialist and trade-union movements. Though the Christian Democratic movement is very heterogeneous, there is general agreement on certain issues. The proposed design of the Christian Democratic state is decentralized, made up by various bodies, but having an unquestionable capacity. Christian Democracy sees the economy as being at the service of humanity; however, most Christian Democratic Parties do not call capitalism itself into question. The duty of the state to care for its citizens is of some importance for Christian Democrats, but they generally oppose Christian socialism. In recent decades, Christian Democratic parties in Europe have shifted more towards a right-wing policy of economic liberalism, based on reducing the role of the state in the economy. Meanwhile, Christian Democratic parties in Latin America are generally more inclined to support left-wing economic views than their European counterparts. On issues of public morality and tradition, Christian Democrats are conservative, and often tend to follow the views of the Vatican on such issues as abortion and same-sex marriage. However, most of them have accepted separation of church and state and divorce.

Spratly Islands

Claimed by China but disputed by claims from Brunei, Vietnam, Malaysia, others

UN General Assembly

Comprised of representatives of all states, it allocates UN funds, passes non-binding resolutions, and coordinates third world development programs and various autonomous agencies through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

Cameroon vs. Nigeria

Conflict over the Bakasi Peninsula; the ICJ ruled in favor of Cameroon.

Norway vs. Russia

Continental shelf dispute, Norway claims fishing areas around Svalbard Islands.

Free Association with New Zealand

Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau (in process)

CITs

Countries in transition - a nation that is in a state of transition, whether it be social, economic, political or otherwise. Transitions can be very different in nature. Ex) Bolshevik revolution, American revolution, Chinese Revolution.

Balkan independence

Croatia first, then Serbia. Bosnia in 1992 from Yugoslavia. Kosovo last.

Roosevelt Corollary

December 1904 â€" Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine in which the U.S. declared its right to exercise an international police power when Western Hemisphere countries, by not keeping their debts or other affairs in order, invited foreign aggression.

Iran & Iraq (Gulf)

Dispute over access to the Gulf. In the Algiers Accord, Iraq gave up the territory to Iran.

Oman vs. UAE

Dispute over islands in the strait of Hormuz

Donut Hole

Disputed area between Russia and the US in the Bering Strait

Louisa Reef

Disputed between Malaysia and Brunei; Brunei claims an EEZ around the reef.

Bystroe Canal & Serpent Island

Disputed by Romania and Ukraine. ICJ split Serpent Island in 2009. **Mouth of the Danube at issue**

Gabon vs. Equatorial Guinea

Disputes over continental shelf and mineral deposits.

Balkanization

Division of a place or country into several small political units, often unfriendly to one another.

European Economic Community

EEC - The regional trade and economic organization established in Western Europe by the Treaty of Rome in 1958; also known as the common market.

What is Economic Imperialism?

Economic Imperialism is the involvement of one state in the economy of another so that the power of the sovereign state is impaired.

Gibraltar

English will never relinquish this piece of Spain.

Biological Weapons Convention

Entered into force in 1975, the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) had 151 member states in 2006. It provides that members of the Convention should "never in any circumstances...develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain...Microbial or other biological agents, or toxins whatever their origin or method of production, of types and in quantities that have no justification for prophylactic, protective or other peaceful purposes." The Convention also imparts responsibilities on member nations to destroy all such weapons and their means of delivery.

The Congo, Burundi, & Rwanda

Ethnic violence between Huutus and Tutsis in Burundi in the 1980s pushes Tutsi refugees into Rwanda. Tensions rose in Rwanda, where 800,000 Tutsis were killed in 1994. The Huutu militants fled to the DRC, causing more unrest and civil war there.

Jingoism

Extreme and emotional nationalism, often characterized by an aggressive foreign policy, accompanied by an eagerness to wage war.

Yalta

Feb. 1945 â€" Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin met face-to-face at Yalta in the U.S.S.R. to plan for the end of World War II. It was at this conference that Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to the Soviet occupation of much of Eastern Europe. Although the agreements provided for eventual free elections in the countries of Eastern Europe, the Soviets did not comply with that portion of the agreement.

Czech Coup

Feb. 1948 â€" A Soviet supported coup in which the government of Czechoslavkia, the last independent government in Eastern Europe, was replaced by a communist regime that was a puppet of the Soviet Union.

Free Assocation with the US

Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Northern Marianas

FPI

Foreign portfolio investment - Investment in the stocks and the public/private debt instruments (such as bonds) of another country below the level where the stock or bondholder can exercise control over the policies of the stock-issuing company or the bond-issuing debtor. Solely to gain capital appreciation through market fluctuations.

America First

Founded in 1939 after Germany's invasion of Poland, America First was an isolationist group that opposed U.S. involvement in World War II. Many prominent Americans were members, including aviator Charles Lindbergh. At its peak, America First had 800,000 members. The organization disbanded shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

GATT

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade - the world's primary organization promoting the expansion of free trade, established in 1947. Membership of over 119 countries

G77

Group of 77 - the group of 77 countries of the South that cosponsored the Joint Declaration of Developing Countries in 1963 calling for greater equity in N-S trade. Now includes 133 members and represents the interests of the less developed countries of the South.

naturalist school of law

Humans, by nature, have certain rights and obligations. Lockian thought.

When was Mercosur founded?

In 1991. It is a trading block of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Venezuela and Bolivia will become members soon.

What is Integral Nationalism?

Integral Nationalism glorifies the state as the highest focus of individual loyalties.

What is Irredentism?

Irredentism is the desire of the people of a state to annex the contiguous territories of another state that are inhabited by mostly members of linguistic and/or cultural minorities of the first state.

What was the 1975 Helsinki Conference?

It founded the The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

lateral pressure (theory of)

It holds that the economic and population growth of states fuels geographic expansion as they seek natural resources beyond their borders, which in turn leads to conflicts and sometimes to war.

What is the European Investment Bank?

It is the EU's financing institution, founded in 1957. Located in Luxembourg, its goal is to further the economic goals and carry out the agreements of the EU within, and with other nations.

Stimson Doctrine

January 1932 â€" a U.S. policy enunciated in a note to Japan and China from U.S. Secretary of State Henry Stimson following Japan’s unilateral seizure of Manchuria in Northeast China. The note said the United States did not recognize territorial changes effected by force.

Four Freedoms

January 1941: FDR freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want, and freedom from fear of physical aggression. He called for the last freedom to be achieved through a “worldwide reduction in armaments.†In August 1941 he and Winston Churchill included the four freedoms in the Atlantic Charter.

Potsdam

Jul.-Aug. 1945 -- A city of northeast Germany on the Havel River near Berlin. The city was the site of the Potsdam Conference, at which American, British, and Soviet leaders drew up preliminary plans for the postwar administration of Germany and assigned various captured territories to Poland.

Pact of Paris (Kellog-Briand Treaty)

June 1927 â€" Pact condemning “recourse to war for the solution of international controversies.†Aristide Briand foreign minister of France, proposed to the U.S. government a treaty outlawing war between the two countries. Frank B. Kellogg, the U.S. Secretary of State, returned a proposal for a general pact against war, and after prolonged negotiations the Pact of Paris was signed by 15 nations.

Battle of Britain

June 1940-April 1941: Series of intense raids directed against Britain by the German air force in World War II. The air attacks, intended to prepare the way for a German invasion, were directed against British ports and RAF bases. In September 1940 the attacks turned to London and other cities in a “blitz†of bombings for 57 consecutive nights, which was followed by intermittent raids until April 1941. The RAF was outnumbered but succeeded in blocking the German air force through superior tactics, advanced air defenses, and the penetration of German secret codes.

Bryan resigns

June 9, 1915-Believing the strong language in Wilson's note to Germany after the sinking of the British ship Lusitania would lead the U.S. into an unnecessary war; Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan resigned his post.

Great Purge

Late 30's - The name given to campaigns of political repression and persecution in the Soviet Union orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the late 1930s. It involved the purge of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the persecution of unaffiliated persons, both occurring within a period characterized by omnipresent police surveillance, widespread suspicion of "saboteurs", show trials, imprisonment, and killings. In the West the term "the Great Terror" was popularized after the title of Robert Conquest's The Great Terror. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago is also devoted to this period of Soviet history.

Pacta sunta servanda

Latin - "agreements must be kept." The oldest principle of international law. Without it, no int'l agreement would be binding or enforceable. Directly referred to in many int'l agreements governing treaties.

What region of the world receives the most immigrant visas to the US?

Latin America, then Asia, then Europe.

LDCs

Least developed countries - Countries, located mainly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, with economics that rely heavily on the production of agriculture and raw materials and whose per capita GDP and standard of living are substantially below Western standards.

What is Liberal Nationalism?

Liberal Nationalism is the aspiration of a group to achieve statehood based on popular sovereignty. It emphasizes freedom from foreign domination.

Budestag

Lower house in Germany.

Iron Curtain Speech

March 5, 1946 speech by Winston Churchill at Westminster College in Fulton, MO, in which he called attention to the burgeoning Cold War. “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an ‘iron curtain’ has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe…â€

French Overseas Departments

Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guyana, Reunion Island, Mayotte (future)

nonaligned movement

Movement of third world states, led by India and Yugoslavia, that attempted to stand apart from the U.S.-Soviet rivalry during the Cold War.

Korean War Begins

N. Korea launched attack on South Korea across the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950. First test of the 1947 Truman Doctrine. Because of Soviet boycott of U.N. Security Council (due to U.S. refusal to recognize PRC), U.N. approved a defensive force. U.S.-led U.N. force entered the war in July.

Kwame Nkrumah

Nationalist leader and president of Ghana (1960â€"66). Nkrumah worked as a teacher before going to the U.S. to study literature and socialism (1935â€"45). In 1949 he formed the Convention People's Party, which advocated nonviolent protests, strikes, and noncooperation with the British authorities. Elected prime minister of the Gold Coast (1952â€"60) and then president of independent Ghana, Nkrumah advanced a policy of Africanization and built new roads, schools, and health facilities. After 1960 he devoted much of his time to the Pan-African movement, at the expense of Ghana's economy. Following an attempted coup in 1962, he increased authoritarian controls, withdrew from public life, increased contacts with communist countries, and wrote works on political philosophy. With the country facing economic ruin, he was deposed in 1966 while visiting Beijing.

Class C Mandates

New Guinea, Nauru, Western Samoa, Southwest Africa

NICs

Newly industrialized countries - Less developed countries whose economies and whose trade now include significant amounts of manufactured products. As a result, these countries have a per capita GDP significantly higher than the average per capita GDP for less developed countries.

NAFTA

North American Free Trade Agreement - An economic agreement among Canada, Mexico and the US that wen into effect on Jan 1, 1994. It will eliminate most trade barriers by 2009 and will also eliminate or reduce restrictions on foreign investments and other financial transactions among the NAFTA countries.

Washington Naval Disarmament Conference

November 1921-February 1922 â€" U.S., China, Japan and the powers of Europe attended. Three treaties resulted. The Five-Powers Treaty, adopted by France, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and the United States, established a ratio for the size of each navy, placed a ten-year ban on the building of warships, put restrictions on submarine warfare, and outlawed poisonous gas. The other treaties dealt with issues in the Pacific, including the Open Door Policy and China’s territorial integrity.

What natural resource does Azerbaijan mainly export?

OIL.

Wilson Suffers Stroke

Oct. 3, 1919 -- Wilson suffered a catastrophic, disabling stroke while campaigning for passage of the Versailles Treaty. The campaign was cut short and Wilson was never the same. This doomed any chance of passage of the treaty as Wilson, in this disabled state, withdrew from negotiations with Senate Republicans and refused to entertain any amendments to the treaty.

Dumbarton Oaks Conference

October 1944 - at an estate in the Georgetown area of Washington, D.C. Four powers participated: the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and China. Because of Soviet neutrality in the Asian conflict, China only attended beginning 29 September, the day the Russians departed. The conference had the task of preparing a charter for a "general international organization," as stipulated in the Moscow Declaration of 30 October 1943. The conference chose the name of the wartime alliance, the United Nations (UN), for the new body. In imitation of the League of Nations, the new UN would possess a Security Council, a General Assembly, a Secretariat, and an International Court of Justice. To avoid, however, the pitfalls of the League of Nations, the conferees concluded that unanimous votes should not be mandatory to reach decisions in the Security Councilor the General Assembly; all signatories must agree in advance to act on the Security Council's findings; contingents of the armed forces of member states must be at Security Council disposal; and that the creation of an Economic and Social Council was necessary.

Law of the Sea Convention

Officially known as the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), this agreement was opened for signature in 1982 and entered into force in 1994. As of June 2006, 149 countries had signed on to the Convention. Seeking to govern the peaceful use of the seas, the measure covers deep sea drilling, straits used for international navigation, the oceanic rights of landlocked nations and many other aspects of international oceanic interaction. The United States is not an official signatory to the Law of the Sea Convention, but adheres to most of its provisions. The main point of disagreement heretofore has been the limits on deep sea drilling. However, with support from both the White House and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in 2006 the United States appeared close to acceding to UNCLOS.

Which African countries are not part of the African Union?

Only Morocco. The African Union (abbreviated AU) was founded in July 2002. The AU is a federation consisting of 53 states. It was formed as a successor to the amalgamated African Economic Community (AEC) and the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). Eventually, the AU aims to have a single currency and a single integrated defense force, as well as other institutions of state, including a cabinet for the AU Head of State. The purpose of the federation is to help secure Africa's democracy, human rights and a sustainable economy, especially by bringing an end to intra-African conflict and creating an effective common market.

South Ossetia

Ossetia is split between Russia (north) and Georgia (south). Many ethnic Russians live in South Ossetia.

Mayotte

Part of the Comoros Islands. It is the only Catholic island; recently voted to become the 5th overseas department of France.

schlieffen Plan

Plan of attack used by the German armies at the outbreak of World War I. It was named after its developer, Count Alfred von Schlieffen (1833â€"1913), former chief of the German general staff. To meet the possibility of Germany's facing a war against France in the west and Russia in the east, Schlieffen proposed that, instead of aiming the first strike against Russia, Germany should aim a rapid, decisive blow with a large force at France's flank through Belgium, then sweep around and crush the French armies against a smaller German force in the south. The plan used at the beginning of World War I had been modified by Helmuth von Moltke, who reduced the size of the attacking army and was blamed for Germany's failure to win a quick victory.

fourth world

Refers to a sub-population subjected to social exclusion in global society, but since the 1974 publication of The Fourth World: An Indian Reality of George Manuel, Cheif of the National Indian Brotherhood - Assembly of First Nations, fourth world has come to be known as a synonym for stateless nations

Soviet New Economic Policy

Restored private ownership to small parts of the economy, loosened trade restrictions, and tried to regain alliances with foreign countries. Succeeded in creating an economic recovery after the devastating effects of WWI.

Court of St. James

Royal court of Britain.

Kuril Islands

Russia took posession of the islands after the Russo-Japanese War but they are still in dispute.

Chechnya

Separatist movement from Russia; terrorist acts by Chechens have spurred Russian intervention. Oil in the area exacerbates it.

Transdniester Republic

Separatist movement in Moldova

neoliberalism

Shorthand for “neoliberal institutionalismâ€, an approach that stresses the importance of international institutions in reducing the inherent conflict that realists assume in an international system; the reasoning is based on the core liberal idea that seeking long-term mutual gains is often more rational than maximizing individual short-term gains.

Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of Genocide

Signed in 1948, the Convention on the Punishment and Prevention of Genocide states that genocide ". . .whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they [the signatories] undertake to prevent and to punish." The treaty defines genocide as actions ". . .committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." Article III specifically outlines those international crimes that include genocide, such as genocide itself, conspiracy to commit genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, the attempt to commit genocide and complicity in genocide.

Pedra Branca

Singapore and Malaysia dispute ownership of the islands in the Singapore strait. ICJ ruled the Malaysia has no title to the Pedra Branca.

Where do the majority of UN troops come from?

Smaller countries. The top 5 troop donating nations are India, Nigeria, Jordan, Bangladesh, and Australia. The US is the top money donator to the UN, but it donates few troops.

Uzbekistan conflicts

Some ethnic problems. The Islamic Movement of Uzbek. causes some instability.

Andrei Gromyko

Soviet foreign minister (1957-85) and president (1985-88) of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet. Though never strongly identified with any political faction, he served dependably as a skilled emissary and spokesman. He was ambassador to the U.S. (1943-46), Soviet representative to the UN Security Council (1946-48), and ambassador to Britain (1952-53). In 1957 he began his long tenure as foreign minister and became renowned for his negotiating skills. In 1985 he was promoted to the presidency, with great prestige but little power, after Mikhail Gorbachev came to power.

Ceuta

Spanish city on the tip of Morocco. Illegal immigration is an issue here.

SDRs

Special drawing rights - Reserves held by the IMF that central banks of member-countries can draw on to help manage the values of the currencies. SDR value is based on a "market-base" of currencies, and SDRs are acceptable in transactions between central banks.

Indus River Treaty

States that the Indus and all tributaries must flow unblocked to the ocean

Thalweg Principle

States that the border between 2 states in water lies along the thalweg, the line of fastest flow of a river.

Name some countries with a federalist system of government.

Switzerland, US, Belgium, Germany, Canada.

Taiwan (Quemoy)

Taiwan occupes Quemoy, 3 miles from the Chinese mainland, which heightens tensions

Banana republics

Term describing any of several small nations in Latin American that have economies based on a few agricultural crops.

What country used to be known as Siam?

Thailand. The name was changed in 1949. The Thais are very proud that they were never colonized by a European power. There are two main reasons for this: it was left as a buffer state between parts of Asia that were colonised by the French and the British and Thailand had a series of very able rulers in the 1800s.

American Convention on Human Rights

The American Convention on Human Rights, which entered into force in 1978, defines the human rights that the ratifying states of the Western Hemisphere have agreed to foster through the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States (OAS) headquartered in Washington, D.C. The IACHR meets frequently, considers cases brought before it and gives priority to stimulating public awareness in such areas as judicial independence, activities of irregular armed groups and the human rights of minors, women and indigenous peoples. The Convention also established the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, located in San Jose, Costa Rica.

What was The Antarctic Treaty?

The Antarctic Treaty and related agreements, collectively called the Antarctic Treaty System or ATS, regulate the international relations with respect to Antarctica, Earth's only uninhabited continent. For the purposes of the treaty system, Antarctica is defined as all land and ice shelves south of the southern 60th parallel. The treaty was signed by 12 countries, including the Soviet Union and the United States, and set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, established freedom of scientific investigation and banned military activity on that continent. This was the first arms control agreement established during the Cold War. The main treaty was opened for signature on December 1, 1959, and officially entered into force on June 23, 1961.

What is the Asian Development Bank?

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral development finance institution dedicated to reducing poverty in Asia and the Pacific. It was founded in 1966 with 31 members states and has now grown to include 64, including the US, many europen nations, and all asian nations, including the stans. Headquartered in Philippines.

What is the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)?

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a political, economic, and cultural organization of countries located in Southeast Asia. Formed on August 8, 1967, by Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines, as a non-provocative display of solidarity against communist expansion in Vietnam and insurgency within their own borders. Following the Bali Summit of 1976, the organization embarked on a programme of economic cooperation, which floundered in the mid-1980's only to be revived around a 1991 Thai proposal for a regional "free trade area".

What is ANZUS?

The Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty (ANZUS or ANZUS Treaty) is the military alliance which binds Australia and the United States, and separately Australia and New Zealand to cooperate on defense matters in the Pacific Ocean area, though today the treaty is understood to relate to attacks in any area. The treaty came about following the close cooperation of the United States, Australia and New Zealand during World War II, during which time Australia had come perilously close to invasion by Japan. Following the end of World War II, the United States was eager to normalize relations with Japan, particularly as the Korean War was still raging a short distance from Japan. With the involvement of China and possibly the Soviet Union in Korea, the Cold War was threatening to become a full-scale war. However, Australia and New Zealand in particular were extremely reluctant to finalize a peace treaty with Japan which would allow for Japanese rearmament. Both countries relented only when an Australian and New Zealand proposal for a three-way security treaty was accepted by the United States. The resulting treaty was concluded at San Francisco on 1 September 1951, and entered into force on 29 April 1952.

What is the Central American Common Market?

The Central American Common Market (abbreviated CACM - in Spanish: Mercado Común Centroamericano, abbreviated MCCA) is an economic trade organization between five nations of Central America. It was established on December 13, 1960 between the nations of Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in a conference in Managua. These nations ratified the treaties of membership the following year. Costa Rica joined the CACM in 1963. The organization collapsed in 1969 with the Football War between Honduras and El Salvador, but was then reinstated in 1991. The CACM has succeeded in removing duties on most products moving among the member countries, and has largely unified external tariffs and increased trade within the member nations. However, it has not achieved the further goals of greater economic and political unification that were hoped for at the organization's founding, mainly caused by the CACM's inability and lack of reliable means to settle trade disputes. With the proposal of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, it is possible that this new organization will replace the CACM.

What is the european Common Agricultural Policy?

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a system of European Union agricultural subsidies which represents about 44% of the EU's budget (€43 billion scheduled spend for 2005 [1]). These subsidies work by guaranteeing a minimum price to producers and by direct payment of a subsidy for crops planted. This provides some economic certainty for EU farmers and production of a certain quantity of agricultural goods. Reforms of the system are currently underway including a phased transfer of subsidy to land stewardship rather than specific crop production from 2005 to 2012. The OECD countries' total agricultural subsidies amount to more than the GDP of the whole of Africa. CAP price intervention causes artificially high food prices throughout the EU. Some have suggested that Europeans pay about 25% higher prices for food than they would without the CAP.

What is the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)?

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is a confederation, or alliance, consisting of 11 former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan discontinued permanent membership as of August 26, 2005 and is now an associate member. The creation of CIS signaled the dissolution of the Soviet Union and, according to leaders of Russia, its purpose was to "allow a civilized divorce" between the Soviet Republics. However, many observers have seen the CIS as a tool that would allow Russia to keep its influence over the post-Soviet states. Since its formation, the member-states of CIS have signed a large number of documents concerning integration and cooperation on matters of economics, defense and foreign policy.

Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty

The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) bans all nuclear weapons tests. Since the Treaty was opened for signature in 1996, some 170 states have become members. Seen as an important step toward reducing the proliferation of nuclear weapons capabilities and promoting progress toward the ideal of nuclear disarmament, the CTBT provides for on-site inspections and periodic reporting by participating states.

What was the first treaty to recognize and regulate diplomacy?

The Congress of Vienna in 1815.

Convention Against Torture

The Convention Against Torture, which entered into force in 1987, places an absolute prohibition on the use of torture as state policy. It requires parties to "take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its jurisdiction" (Article 2). The Convention explicitly states that "No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture," nor can "an order from a superior officer or a public authority." Considered a codification of the customary prohibition of torture in international law, the Convention also prohibits returning a person to a state in circumstances where he or she is likely to be tortured.

Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which entered into force in 1981, is an "international bill of rights for women." The Convention aims to "ensure an immediate end to torture and other forms of degrading treatment and to prosecute and punish those responsible for such practices." With 176 parties as of March 2004, the Convention aims to increase political social, and economic freedoms and opportunities for women throughout the world. The Convention also has provisions against trafficking of women and requires states to take specific measures to prevent their exploitation. In 2006, the United States was one of the 185 state parties to the Convention, but it has expressed objections over provisions relating to family planning.

Convention on the Rights of the Child

The Convention on the Rights of the Child entered into force in 1990, and is one of the primary human rights treaties. It requires States Parties to take "all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members." (Article 2). The Convention protects children's' rights through the juvenile justice system and calls for states to adhere to policies that accord with the best interests of children. The Convention has been ratified by 192 countries. The United States is not a party to this Convention.

What is the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf?

The Cooperation Council of the Arab States of the Gulf, formerly named and still commonly called Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional organization involving the six Persian Gulf Arab States with many economic and social objectives in mind. Created May 25, 1981, the Council is comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

What is the Council of Europe?

The Council of Europe is an international organisation of 46 member states in the European region. The seat of the Council of Europe is in Strasbourg on the Franco-German border. Membership is open to all European states which accept the principle of the rule of law and guarantee fundamental human rights and freedoms to their citizens. One of the main successes of the Council was the European Convention on Human Rights in 1950, which serves as the basis for the European Court of Human Rights. The Council of Europe is not to be confused with the Council of the European Union or the European Council, as it is a separate organisation and not part of the European Union. The Council of Europe was founded following a speech given by Winston Churchill at the University of Zurich on 19 September 1946 calling for a "United States of Europe", similar to the United States of America, in the wake of the events of World War II. The Council was officially founded on 5 May 1949 by the Treaty of London agreed to by the ten original members. This treaty is now known as the Statute of the Council of Europe.

What is the Eurasian Economic Community?

The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC or EAEC) was put into motion on 10 October 2000 when Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan signed the treaty. EurAsEC was formally created when the treaty was finally ratified by all five member states in May 2001. EurAsEC grew out of the CIS Customs Union. All the members of EurAsEC are also members of the older Commonwealth of Independent States and the relationship between the two organisations is ambiguous.

What is the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council?

The Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC) is a NATO organization, a multilateral forum created to improve relations between NATO and non-NATO countries in Europe and those parts of Asia on the European pheriphary. The member states meet to cooperate and consult on a range of political and security issues. It was formed on May 29, 1997 as the successor to the North Atlantic Cooperation Council (NACC).

What is the Euro-Mediterranean free trade area?

The Euro-Mediterranean free trade area (EU-MEFTA) is based on the Barcelona Process and European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP). The Barcelona Process, developed after the Barcelona Conference in successive annual meetings, is a set of goals designed to lead to a free trade area in the Middle East by 2010. Eventually it will integrate free trade with the EU.

What was the European Defence Community?

The European Defence Community (EDC) was a plan proposed by René Pleven, the French foreign minister at the time, in response to the American call for the rearmament of West Germany. Its intention was to form a pan-European defence force as an alternative to Germany's proposed accession to NATO, meant to harness its military potential in case of conflict with the Soviet bloc. The plan included the countries of France, Germany, Italy, and the Benelux countries (Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg). A treaty was signed in May 1952, but the plan never went into effect. Because of the failure to obtain a majority in the French Parliament, due to Gaullist fears that it threatened France's national sovereignty, constitutional concerns about the indivisibility of the French Republic, and fears about Germany's remilitarization, the EDC was never ratified and the initiative collapsed on the 30 of August, 1954.

Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols are a series of treaties enumerating the laws of armed conflict that date from 1864 to 1977. The Geneva Conventions deal with the treatment of prisoners of war, civilians and sailors in times of conflict. The Conventions are the foremost, but not the only, international documents governing the conduct of warring states. The most widely adhered to Conventions are the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their two Additional Protocols, which regulate most aspects of armed interstate conflict and address the need to accord humane treatment to combatants in noninternational conflicts through the Conventions' Common Article 3. The Second Additional Protocol of 1977 addresses more aspects of noninterstate conflict, including the noninvolvement of civilians. The provisions of the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949 have been ratified by 192 states and are accepted as Customary International Law. The two Additional Protocols have been ratified by more than 160 countries, but not by the United States.

What were the Helinski Accords?

The Helsinki Accords is the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Helsinki in 1975 between the United States and Canada, the Soviet Union and the countries of Europe, including Turkey but not Albania and Andorra. The civil rights portion of the agreement provided the basis for the work of Helsinki Watch, an independent NGO created to monitor compliance to the Helsinki Accords (which evolved into several regional committees to finally form Human Rights Watch). While these provisions applied to all signatories the focus of attention was on their application to the Soviet Union and its associates, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania.

What is the Idealist Approach to Foreign Policy?

The Idealist approach assumes that a foreign policy based on morals, legal codes, and international norms is the most effective foreign policy because it encourages unity and cooperation among states rather than competition and conflict.

What is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights?

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages - Spanish, French, and Portuguese - CIDH) is one of the two bodies that comprise the inter-American system for the promotion and protection of human rights.

What is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights?

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights is an autonomous judicial institution based in the city of San José, Costa Rica. Together with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, it makes up the human rights protection system of the Organization of American States (OAS), which serves to uphold and promote basic rights and freedoms in the Americas.

International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, another of the primary international human rights treaties, provides that states parties shall avoid the practice or sponsorship of racial discrimination including "any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin" which has the effect of nullifying or impairing the exercise of basic human rights in any field of public life (Article 1). The Convention also establishes the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to monitor and report on state compliance. Entered into force in 1969, the Convention had 170 state parties in 2006.

Statute of the International Court of Justice

The International Court of Justice, created in 1945 as the judicial arm of the United Nations, was designed to provide a forum for hearing disputes under international law between member states. It functions as an independent court, and also issues advisory opinions on various questions of law. Article 38 (1) of the Statute establishes the sources of international law that it applies: international conventions or treaties, customary international law, general principles of law recognized by civilized nations, judicial decisions and distinguished scholarly writings.

International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) is one of the basic documents contained in the International Bill of Human Rights, along with its two optional Protocols (which provide for a complaints mechanism to address violations and for elimination of the death penalty, neither of which have been ratified by the United States). The ICCPR enumerates the core principles that underlie legal rights and the rights of due process for accused persons. It specifies that individuals have on an equal basis the right to life, freedom from cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, freedom of movement and freedom of religion and expression, among many others. The Convention established the Human Rights Committee to monitor state compliance. Entered into force in 1976, it had 156 state parties as of 2006.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is one of the basic documents contained in the International Bill of Human Rights. Article 1 states that "All peoples have the right of self-determination, including the right to determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development." The Convenant also affirms individuals' rights to food, work, housing and education. The Covenant, entered into force in 1976, does not count the United States as a signatory.

What is the difference between the ICC and the ICJ in the Hague?

The International Criminal Court is a permanant war crimes tribunal. The International Court of Justice rules on disputes between states.

Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international agreement that attempts to address global warming and climate change. In 2006, 162 countries were parties to the Protocol, which provides for the modernization of greenhouse gas-producing facilities, as well as the buying and selling of "pollution credits" known as "emission reduction units" to stabilize and reduce the amounts of greenhouse gasses emitted into the atmosphere. The United States is not a state party to the Protocol because, spokespersons say, it does not equitably distribute the burden of reducing emissions and thus would unfairly disadvantage U.S. economic interests.

What is LAFTA?

The Latin American Free Trade Association was created in 1960 by Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. The signatories hoped to create a common market in Latin America. By 1970, LAFTA expanded to include Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. In 1980, LAFTA reorganized into the Latin American Integration Association. Membership remained unchanged until Cuba joined in 1999.

Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on Their Destruction (1997 Mine Ban Treaty)

The Mine Ban Treaty prohibits the production, use and transfer of antipersonnel landmines, and calls on parties to eliminate existing stockpiles and take measures to remove existing landmines from affected countries. States are also called on to raise awareness about mines and ensure that mine victims are cared for, rehabilitated and reintegrated into their communities. The Convention, entered into force in 1999, had more than 150 signatories by 2006. The United States is not a party to the Convention because of concerns about its impact on the landmines that defend South Korea from a possible attack from the North.

What was the Organisation of African Unity?

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) or Organisation de l'Unité Africaine (OUA) was established on May 25, 1963. It was disbanded July 9, 2002 by its last chairman, South African Thabo Mbeki and replaced by the African Union. Its intended purpose was to promote the unity and solidarity of the African States and act as a collective voice for the continent. It was also dedicated to the eradication of colonialism and established a Liberation Committee to aid independence movements. Its headquarters were established at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, at the invitation of its emperor, Haile Selassie I. The Charter of the Organisation was signed by 32 independent African states. At the time of its disbanding, 53 out of the 54 countries in Africa were members; Morocco left in 1985 following the admission of Western Sahara in 1982. Though widely derided as a bureaucratic "talking shop" with little power, Ghanaian United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan praised the OAU for bringing Africans together. Nevertheless, in its 39 years of existence critics argue that the OAU did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it "The Dictators Club".

Convention on the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD Convention)

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), founded in 1961 and comprising 30 member countries, is dedicated to promoting increased economic development among its members and with 70 partner countries. It produces international agreements, standards and regulations that promote guidelines to facilitate economic development, trade and good governance. The OECD also publishes authoritative statistics and documents on macroeconomics, education, development and technology issues.

What is the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe?

The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is an international organization for security. In its region, it is concerned with early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe has 55 participating states from Europe, the Mediterranean, the Caucasus, Central Asia and North America. The OSCE's Secretariat (headquarters) is located in Vienna, Austria. The Organization also has offices in Copenhagen, Geneva, The Hague, Prague and Warsaw. The organization was established in 1973 as the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE).

What is the Organization of American States?

The Organization of American States (OAS; OEA in the other three official languages) is an international organization, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States. Its members are the 35 independent nations of the Americas. Founded in 1948. Members include every free nation in the western hemisphere, except cuba, which is suspended. From its creation up until, at the least, the mid-1980s, the OAS was a frequent target for critics, particularly those on the left of the political spectrum, who accused it of being a mere arm of U.S. foreign policy - "Washington's colonial office", it was scornfully labeled (this is sometimes attributed to Fidel Castro, but is not verified; see [5]). This interpretation was borne out by the alacrity with which the Organization moved, at Washington's bidding, to expel Cuba in 1962; in contrast, the OAS never took steps to suspend the membership of the various dictatorships that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s and were disrepectful of human rights and democracy - Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Guatemala - but that differed from Cuba in their political orientation. The return to democracy that took place in the 1980s and 1990s saw the emergence of new trends within the OAS. The Organization's new direction has taken it into areas of greater direct relevance to the peoples of the continent: for example, its highly successful demining programs in Central America and the Andean region. Perhaps more importantly, the Organization's other member states (particularly the South Americans) now appear to be reasserting their political independence and assuming positions that are much less subservient to U.S. interests.

What is the Pacific Islands Forum?

The Pacific Islands Forum is an inter-governmental consultative organ which aims to enhance cooperation between the independent countries of the Pacific Ocean and represent their interests. It was founded in 1971 as the South Pacific Forum; the name was changed in 2000 to better reflect the correct geographic locations of its member states both in the north and south Pacific. Member states are: Australia, the Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court

The Rome Statute created the International Criminal Court (ICC), located at the Hague, Netherlands. The ICC states that it is "a permanent institution and shall have the power to exercise its jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern, as referred to in this Statute, and shall be complementary to national criminal jurisdictions." The court's jurisdiction covers four specific areas of international law: genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes (violations of international law, such as the Geneva conventions) and crimes of aggression. The Court, which was entered into force in 2002, has 120 participants. The United States, which was committed to the Treaty under President Bill Clinton, "unsigned" the treaty early in the Administration of George W. Bush, because of expressed concerns over the possibility that American military service members and political officials could be indicted on unfair charges based on political motivations.

What is the South Asia Free Trade Agreement?

The South Asia Free Trade Agreement is an agreement reached at the 12th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit at Islamabad, capital of Pakistan on 6 January 2004. It creates a framework for the creation of a free trade zone covering 1.4 billion people in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Bhutan and the Maldives.The seven foreign ministers of the region signed a framework agreement on SAFTA with zero customs duty on the trade of practically all products in the region by end 2012.

What is the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation?

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, proposed by Ziaur Rahman, the then-president of Bangladesh, was established on December 8, 1985. SAARC is an association of eight countries of South Asia: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and most recently admitted, Afghanistan. These countries comprise an area of 5,127,500 km2 and a fifth of the world's population. SAARC encourages cooperation in agriculture, rural development, science and technology, culture, health, population control, narcotics control and anti-terrorism. In 1993, SAARC countries signed an agreement to gradually lower tariffs within the region. Nine years later, at the 12th SAARC summit at Islamabad, SAARC countries devised the South Asia Free Trade Agreement which created a framework for the establishment of a free trade zone covering 1.4 billion people. This agreement went into force on January 1, 2006.

What was the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO)?

The Southeast Atlantic Treaty Organization (SEATO), also known as the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty or the Manila Pact, was an international organisation for defence collaboration established on September 8, 1954. The organization's headquarters was located in Bangkok, Thailand. It was dissolved in 1977. Members: Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, Thailand, Great Britain, U.S.

What is the Status Quo Approach to Foreign Policy?

The Status Quo Approach to Foreign Policy seeks to maintain the territorial, ideological, or power distribution of the state.

What is the Treaty on Open Skies?

The Treaty on Open Skies entered into force on January 1, 2002, and currently has 34 States Parties. It establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its participants. The treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them. Open Skies is one of the most wide-ranging international efforts to date promoting openness and transparency of military forces and activities. The concept of "mutual aerial observation" was initially proposed by President Eisenhower in 1955; the treaty eventually signed was an initiative of President (and former Director of Central Intelligence) George H. W. Bush in 1989. Negotiated by the then-members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in Helsinki, Finland, on March 24, 1992. The United States ratified it in 1993. The 34 States Parties to the Open Skies Treaty are: Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and United States.

UN Secretariat

The UN's executive branch, led by the secretary-general.

Who is brazil's biggest trading partner?

The US.

United Nations Charter

The United Nations Charter, which entered into force in 1945, is the founding document of the United Nations. Its preamble states that the goals of the organization are "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom." In 2006, the United Nations had 192 member states.

What was the "Velvet Divorce" ?

The Velvet Divorce is a journalistic term for the dissolution of the former country of Czechoslovakia into the nations of Slovakia and the Czech Republic, effective January 1, 1993. The term is used to liken this event to the Velvet Revolution of 1989 which led to the end of the rule of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the formation of a new, non-Communist government. The term itself did not catch on either in the Czech Republic, nor in Slovakia, but it is used by the international media.

Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, signed in Vienna on April 24, 1963, was created by the United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities to further the development of friendly relations among nations. The treaty states that consular relations between nations take place by mutual consent. It also states that consular functions consist of protecting the interests of a country's nationals in the receiving state, furthering the development of relations and ascertaining the conditions of the receiving state. The consul will also issue passports, travel documents and visas, as well as safeguard its nationals in the event of war or other crisis. The treaty provides for the exemption of the consular officer from municipal, state and federal taxes of the host state. It also forbids the prosecution of an officer except in cases of grave criminal misconduct.

Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which was signed and entered into force in 1961, establishes the rights, privileges and roles of a diplomatic officer of a sending state in a host state. The Convention covers such areas as diplomatic immunity, exemptions from local, state and federal taxes, and the establishment of diplomatic posts. Essentially, the Convention establishes a framework for the protection of each state's sovereignty in diplomatic relations.

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Between States and International Organizations or Between International Organizations

The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties Between States and International Organizations or Between International Organizations was signed in 1986, but has not yet entered into force. It sets forth the rules for the agreements, modifications and revocations of treaties between states and international organizations. This treaty therefore acts in parallel with the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, which applies only to state contracting parties.

What is the Western European Union?

The Western European Union (WEU) is a partially dormant European defence and security organization, established on the basis of the Treaty of Brussels of 1948 with the accession of West Germany and Italy in 1954. Its two stated aims were: to afford assistance to each other inr sisting any policy of aggression, to promote unity and integration of Europe. Currently being merged into EU.

Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization (Marrakesh Agreement)

The World Trade Organization (WTO) was formed in 1994 following the Uruguay Round of trade negotiations to encompass the existing General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in an institutional framework, enhance its provisions and provide for a binding dispute resolution mechanism. The WTO, with approximately 150 members, is the principal multilateral forum for addressing international trade issues.

Midway

The World War II Battle of Midway was fought on June 5, 1942. The U.S. Navy defeated a Japanese attack against Midway Atoll, marking a turning point in the war in the Pacific theatre.

Dependency theory

The beleif that the industrialized North has created a neocolonial relationship with the South in which the less developed countries are dependent on and disadvantaged by their economic relations with the capital industrial countries.

UN Charter

The founding document of the United Nations; it is based on the principles that states are equal, have sovereignty over their own affairs, enjoy independence and territorial integrity, and must fulfill international obligations. The Charter also lays out the structure and methods of the UN.

Maastricht Treaty

The most significant agreement in the recent history of the EU - signed by leaders of the EU's 12 member countries in 1991 and outlines steps toward further political-economic integration.

neocolonialism

The notion that EDCs continue to control and exploit LDCs through indirect means, such as economic dominance and co-opting the local elite.

What was the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE)?

The organization was established in 1973 as the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe (CSCE). Talks had been mooted about a European security grouping since the 1950s but the Cold War prevented any substantial progress until the talks at Finlandia Hall in Helsinki began in November 1972. These talks were held at the suggestion of the Soviet Union which wished to use the talks to maintain its control over the communist countries in Eastern Europe. Western Europe, however, saw these talks as a way to reduce the tension in the region, furthering economic cooperation and obtaining humanitarian improvements for the populations of the Communist Bloc. The collapse of Communism required a change of role for the CSCE. The Charter of Paris for a New Europe which was signed on November 21, 1990 marked the beginning of this change. With the changes capped by the re-naming of the CSCE to the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) on January 1, 1995.

feedback

The process through which people find out about public policy and the ways in which their reactions to recent political events help shape the next phase of political life.

What is the Open skies agreement?

The term open skies refers to either to a bilateral or multilateral Air Transport Agreement which: liberalises the rules for international aviation markets and minimises government intervention — the provisions apply to passenger, all-cargo and combination air transportation and encompass both scheduled and charter services; or adjusts the regime under which military and other state-based flights may be permitted.

What is the difference between Unitary and federal systems of government?

The unitary system gives the main powers to the central government. State, provincial, and local governments are all created by the central government. The non-central governments have only the powers that are appointed by the central government. Countries such as France, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom, along with other democratic nations use the unitary system of government. Although, not every country uses the same rules in the centralization and decentralization of powers. China, North Korea, Cuba, and other Communist-based governments have unitary systems too. Unlike the unitary system, the federal system develops when a number of states or providences federate, or form a union, eventually in order to establish a nation. In a government using the federal system, the powers of the governments are jointly shared between the central government and the more local (or regional) governments (state, providential, district, etc.). Both of the national and regional governments are directly tied to the people, who are the source of a democratic government's authority. The United States and Canada have federal systems. Other countries that use the federal plan include Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany, India, Mexico, and Switzerland. It is more difficult for nation-wide communism or totalitarianism to exist in a Federation, for true federalism requires decentralization and cannot coexist with totalitarianism.

territorial waters

The waters near states’ shores generally treated as part of national territory. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for a 12-mile territorial sea (exclusive national jurisdiction over shipping and navigation) and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) covering exclusive fishing and mineral rights (but allowing for free navigation by all).

What is Intelsat?

The world's largest commercial satellite communications services provider. On July 18, 2001, Intelsat became a private company, 37 years after being formed as International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (INTELSAT), an intergovernmental consortium owning and managing a constellation of communications satellites (Intelsats) to provide international broadcast services. The consortium began on August 20, 1964, with 11 participating countries. On April 6, 1965, Intelsat's first satellite, the Early Bird, was placed in geostationary orbit above the Atlantic Ocean by a Delta D rocket. In 1973, the name was changed and there were 80 signatories. Intelsat provides service to over 600 Earth stations in more than 149 countries, territories and dependencies. By 2001, INTELSAT had over 100 members.

Caspian Sea Access

There are crucial gas pipelines from Uzbekistan in this area. The Caspian is the most successful example of the UN Law of the Sea

Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties

This Convention codifies customary international law with regard to the entry, modification, revocation and enforcement of international agreements. It entered into force in 1980. The United States is not a party to this Convention, but does recognize its principles as a restatement of customary international law.

United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes Against Internationally Protected Persons, Including Diplomatic Agents

This Convention was adopted in response to an increase in the number of kidnappings and attacks on diplomats, state officials and representatives of international organizations, and provides for enhanced criminal penalties for such crimes. It requires states to adopt strict national laws against attacks on diplomats and to either try perpetrators or agree to their extradition. The Convention entered into force in 1977.

positivist school of law

Those who believe that law reflects society and the way that people want the society to operate.

What is the goal of Sinn Fein?

To unite Ireland and kick out the british. The IRA is Sinn Fein's militant wing.

What is the UN convention on the law of the sea?

Took effect in 1994. Establishes 12 mile barrier around nations, and 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones. The us has signed, but not ratified it.

services trade

Trade based on the purchase (import) from or sale (export) to another country of intangibles such as architectural fees, insurance premiums, royalties on movies, books, patents and other intellectual properties, shipping services, advertising fees, and educational programs.

Qemony & Matsu

Two islands remained a Chinese Nationalist outpost after the Communist victory on the mainland in 1949. The People's Republic of China began bombarding the island again in 1958, but the deployment of the U.S. 7th Fleet prevented an escalation of the hostilities. After 1990 Taiwan reduced the military forces stationed on Matsu, civilian rule was restored in 1993, and restrictions on travel to the island were ended in 1994. Limited direct travel to and trade with the mainland has been permitted since Jan., 2001.

UNCPD

UN Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, Egypt in 1994. Called for a program of action to foster family planning and improve the access of women in such areas of education.

What nations oppose the ICC?

US, China, Israel, Zimbabwe.

League of Nations Mandate System

Used to categorize states after WWI based on their readiness for independence

structural adjustment

World Bank programs which offer financial and management aid to poor countries while demanding privatization, trade liberalization, and governmental fiscal restraint

What is World Government?

World Government is a theoretical power system in which all states would surrender their sovereignty and create a supranational state to govern the affairs of the entire world.

WTO

World Trade Organization - the organization that replaced GATT as an organization and now implements it as a treaty.

What is Xenophobia?

Xenophobia is the fear and distrust of foreigners and the policies and objectives of other states.

What is Zionism?

Zionism is a movement which promotes political, economic, financial, and military support for Israel.

state corporatism

a form of corporatism whose adherents hold that the corporate group which is the basis of society is the state (Wikipedia)

gypsies

a nomadic people who originated in the region between India and Iran who migrated to Europe in the 14th century.

catch-all party

a political party whose aim is ot gather support from a broad range of citizens through a de-emphasis of ideology and an emphasis on pragmatism, charismatic leadership, and marketing

social democracy

a political philosophy centered on electoral politics, egalitarian social policies, and the creation of social welfare systems

rent seeking

a process in which political leaders essentially rent out parts of the state to their own patrons, who as a result control public goods that would otherwise be distributed in a nonpolitical manner.

security community

a situation in which low expectations of interstate violence permit a high degree of political cooperation-as for example, among NATO members

prisoner's dilemma

a situation modeled by game theory in which rational actors pursuing their individual interests all achieve worse outcomes than they could have by working together

plebiscite

a vote of an entier nation or other large political unit on an issue of great importance.

stagflation

an inflationary period accompanied by rising unemployment and lack of growth in consumer demand and business activity

peak association

an interest group organization whose membership is other organizations with parallel interests and goals; frequently a nationwide organization of specialized or localized smaller organizations

negative correlation

an inverse association between two variables. As one variable become larger, the other one becomes smaller.

League of Nations

an organization established after WW1 & a forerunner of today's UN; it achieved certain humanitarian & other successes but was weakened by the absence of US membership & by its own lack of effectiveness in ensuring collective security

public structure

an organization or process by which a government carries out its public policies

subsidiarity

an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority (Wikipedia definition)

post-materialist values

beliefs in the importance of policy goals beyond one's immediate self interest (e.g. environmentalism and cultural diversity) as well as one's prosperity and security; sometimes labeled "post-modern values"

Merchants of Death

book of the 1930s which attributed U.S. entry into World War I to the influence of northeastern business interests who wanted to sell Britain arms.

unitary state

concentration of political power in a central government as opposed to federalism

post-industrial

describing an economy in which the service sector has become more important than the industrial sector

mercantilism

economic theory & a political ideology opposed to free trade; it shares with realism the belief that each state must protect its own interests without seeking mutual gains through international organizations

Liberal feminism

emphasizes gender equality & views the "essential" differences in men's & women's abilities/perspectives as trivial or nonexistent

centrifugal forces

forces that divide and fragment societies

centripetal forces

forces that pull societies closer together

plutocracy

government by the rich.

technocrats

highly-educated bureaucrats who make decisions based on their perceptions of technical issues rather than political ones

collective goods problem

how to provide something that benefits all members of a group regardless of what each member contributes to it

Gini coefficient

measures ratio of rich people to poor people. Perfect equality=0 and maximum inequality=100

iron triangle

mutually beneficial relationships between private interests, bureaucrats, and legislators--sometimes called an "integrated elite"

NTB

non-tariff barrier - a non-monetary restriction on trade, such as quotas, technical specifications, or unnecessarily lengthy quarantine and inspection procedures.

optimizing

picking the very best option; contrasts with satisficing, or finding a satisfactory but less than best solution to a problem. The model of "bounded rationality" postulates that decision makers generally "satisfice" rather than optimize

Marxism

power dominate classes oppress the power sub-ordinate classes by denying them access to surplus they create; includes both communism & other approaches

nation-states

states whose population share a sense of national identity, usually including a language & culture

John Bull

the UK uncle sam

unitary actor assumption

the actor exercising power is a single entity that can "think" about its actions coherently & make choices

prebendalism

the form of patron-client politics that legitimizes the exploitation of government power for the benefit of office holders and their followers

Keynsian economics

the idea that governments can manipulate macroeconomic demand through taxation and spending policies in order to foster stable growth

information screens

the subconscious or unconscious filters through which people put the information coming in about the world around them

What is the South American Community of Nations?

will be a continent-wide free trade zone that will unite two existing free-trade organizations—Mercosur and the Andean Community—eliminating tariffs for non-sensitive products by 2014 and sensitive products by 2019. The headquarters of this new organization will be in Lima while the South American Bank will be in Brasilia according to the agreements during the meetings. Complete integration between the Andean Community and Mercosur into the South American Community of Nations is expected by 2007. At the Third South American Summit, on 8 December 2004, presidents or representatives from twelve South American nations signed the Cuzco Declaration, a two-page statement of intent, announcing the foundation of the South American Community. Panama attended the signing ceremony as observer. Leaders announced their intention to model the new community after the European Union, including a common currency, parliament, and passport. According to Allan Wagner, Secretary General of the Andean Community, a complete union like that of the EU should be possible by 2019.