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| first Marxist to be democratically elected as head of state in the Americas (Chilean President 1970). Became unpopular and was overthrown by an American-supported coup d’état on September 11th, 1973 (he committed suicide the same day). He was succeeded by Augusto Pinochet. |
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| the quality of being self-sufficient, usually referring to states and their political structures. Can be economic, military, or cultural. Modern examples include North Korea and Bhutan. |
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| the first Asian-African conference held in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. Its chief purpose was to promote the interests of Asian and African countries (most newly independent) and resist colonialism by the United States and the USSR. It was the first step in the “Non-Alignment Movement.” |
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| an unsuccessful attempt to invade southern Cuba by CIA-trained Cuban exiles with American military support in order to overthrow the Cuban dictator, Fidel Castro. Made Castro more popular, was called the “first defeat of Yankee Imperialism,” and was a major embarrassment to new President JFK. |
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| the flying of food, supplies, and money into Berlin after road routes were blocked by the USSR from June 24th, 1948 to May 12th, 1949. This was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War. The Blockade ended on September 30th, 1949. It was a major embarrassment to the Soviet Union. |
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| a wall built by East Germany and the USSR on the night of August 13th, 1961 to separate Allied-supported West Germany and Soviet-occupied East Germany through Berlin. The wall was torn down in November 1989. |
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| Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin Roosevelt. |
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| the balance of power in the world during the Cold War where the United States and The Soviet Union were the 2 superpowers in the world. |
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| a social class of middle class and merchant civilians. Defined by Marxism as the class of society that owns the means of production in a capitalist society. |
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| a conference held in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire during July 1944 that brought together all 44 Allied nations. The purpose was to regulate the international monetary and financial order after WWII. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Trade Organization (WTO), and World Bank (WB) were created as a result of this conference. |
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| a Soviet Union foreign policy that stated that when any socialist country started to move towards capitalism, military action would be taken to prevent the switch. The Brezhnev Doctrine was used to justify the Invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968 that ended the Prague Spring, and remained in usage as an excuse until the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. |
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| an economic system in which the means of production are privately owned; supply, demand, price, distribution, and investments are determined mainly by private decisions and market forces rather than through a planned economy; and profit is distributed to owners who invest in businesses. Capitalism also refers to the process of capital accumulation. |
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| a Ukrainian nuclear power plant had a melt down on April 26th, 1986 when a reactor had a meltdown and the plant exploded, sending nuclear fallout and contamination into the atmosphere. The disaster is the worst nuclear disaster in world history, and is the only level 7 event on the scale. |
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| a group of 25 young Chilean students trained at the University of Chicago in economics. When Allende was ousted, the policies installed by the Chicago Boys helped Chile become the richest Latin American country in terms of per capita GDP. |
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| the conflict between the conflicting ideologies of the United States and the Soviet Union from right after WWII until 1989. |
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| an agricultural organization where the holdings of farmers are combined to form a farming cooperative. Used by the USSR in an attempt to increase agricultural productivity. |
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| a social structure in which social classes are abolished and property is commonly owned. |
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| producing and exporting goods in which a country has an advantage over other countries in their ability to produce that product effectively. Used by the USSR to try and make production more efficient by having certain countries produce only selected products. |
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| the policy implemented by the United States during the Cold War that aimed to control the spread of Communism and promote American ideals. Its main purpose was to prevent the dreaded “domino effect.” |
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| in October 1962, the USSR began placing short and medium ranged missiles on bases in Cuba, which were aimed at the United States. This was a blatant threat to the United States. President JFK and Soviet Premier Khrushchev somehow talked their way out of a nuclear conflict, but the 14-day crisis was the closest the world has ever come to all-out nuclear war. |
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| a violent mass movement that resulted in social, political, and economic upheaval in China starting in 1966 and ending officially with Mao's death in 1976. It resulted in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray and stagnation. |
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| the undoing of colonialism, or dismantling colonies from the British, French, and Dutch empires. |
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| the easing of strained relations, specifically the agreement between the US and USSR to ease tensions and participate in more discussions in an effort to prevent MAD. |
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| an economic theory which states that the best way for Third World countries to develop is through fostering a strong and varied internal market and to impose high tariffs on imported goods. |
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| a foreign policy theory during the 1950s to 1980s, promoted at times by the government of the United States, that speculated that if one land in a region came under the influence of communism, then the surrounding countries would follow in a domino effect. |
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| John Foster Dulles and Allen Welsh Dulles. John served as Secretary of State under President Eisenhower, and took a tough stance on communism. He was instrumental in the toppling of the Iranian and Guatemalan governments in 1953 and 1954 as a member of the CIA. |
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| an economic philosophy that supports and promotes laissez-faire economics. Proponents of economic liberalism believe political freedom and social freedom are inseparable with economic freedom, and use philosophical arguments promoting liberty to justify economic liberalism and the free market. It opposes government intervention in the free market, and supporting the maximum of free trade and competition, it contrasts with mercantilism, Keynesianism, socialism, and fascism. |
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| a radical political theory that states that a nation is an organic community that requires strong leadership, singular collective identity, and the will and ability to commit violence and wage war in order to keep the nation strong. |
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| a system of trade policy that allows traders to act and or transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services. |
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| GATT (General Agreement for Tariffs and Treaties) |
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| an agreement between United Nations countries in 1947 as a result of the failure to create the International Trade Organization. It remained in effect until 1994. The aim was to reduce tariffs and encourage international trade. |
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| a process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through a global network of communication, transportation, and trade. The term is sometimes used to refer specifically to economic globalization: the integration of national economies into the international economy through trade, foreign direct investment, capital flows, migration, and the spread of technology. |
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| an economic system in which the basis for monetary value is based on gold. Adopted by the United States after WWII. After this most other countries based the value of their currency off the American dollar. |
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| the 7th and final leader of the Soviet Union. He was one of the most open and accessible Soviet leaders, and worked with Reagan. His attempts at reform unintentionally led to the end of the Cold War. |
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| an economic and social plan used from 1958 to 1961 which ostensibly aimed to use China's vast population to rapidly transform the country from an agrarian economy into a modern communist society through the process of agriculturalization, industrialization, and collectivization. |
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| held in July and August of 1975, this conference was an attempt to ease tensions between the Eastern bloc and the West. 35 states signed, including every European state besides Andorra and Albania. |
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| a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties. |
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| the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination. |
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| ISI (Import Substitution Industrialization) |
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| a trade and economic policy based on the premise that a country should attempt to reduce its foreign dependency through the local production of industrialized products. |
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| the ideological and literal border between the Eastern bloc of the Soviet states and Western Europe. |
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| an Islamic term meaning “the struggle,” it is a Muslim duty to spread their religion and maintain their faith. It has been used in recent decades by radical Islamists to justify terrorist attacks against the West. |
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| the first non-Italian Pope since the 1520s, John Paul is the only Polish Pope in history and second-longest serving Pope in history (26 years). He was an actor before becoming a priest, and had a knack for dramatic speeches and influential writings. He was one of the reasons Communism ended, caused by his visit to Poland in 1979 when he kissed the ground in Warsaw. |
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| a 5,000-word telegram sent to Washington from Moscow by George F. Kennan on how to address Soviet actions and a description of Soviet policy. It concluded that Americans needed to strengthen their institution and military in order to resist the Soviet challenge until the Soviet regime softened or collapsed. |
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| a British economist whose ideas shaped the way that many Cold War states ran their economies, also known as the father of macroeconomics. He based his theories on the use of responsible fiscal and monetary practices to mitigate the adverse effects of a recession or depression. Almost every capitalist country in the world used Keynesian economics after WWII. |
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| a Soviet leader who was the Premier of the USSR from 1953 to 1964. He succeeded Stalin, and promptly began “de-Stalinization.” He had improved relations with the West, and was part of the reason for the Sino-Soviet Split because Mao liked Stalin so much. |
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| the pioneer of the policy of détente, and Secretary of State to Nixon and Ford. His role in the bombing of Cambodia made him controversial, but he is still revered today and his opinion is often sought on foreign affairs. |
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| an inter-governmental organization formed as a result of the Treaty of Versailles and a precursor to the United Nations. Its goals included preventing war through collective security, disarmament, and settling international disputes through negotiation and arbitration. The United States did not join, one of the reasons the institution did not last. |
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| a Russian revolutionary and communist leader who led the October Revolution of 1917. He was the first leader of Soviet Russia and fought to create a socialist economic system. He employed Marxism as political policy. |
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| MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) |
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| a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of nuclear weapons by two opposing sides would effectively result in the destruction of both the attacker and the defender. This prevented full-scale nuclear war during the Cold War. |
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| the primary program, 1947–51, of the United States for rebuilding and creating a stronger economic foundation for the countries of Western Europe. It sent money to Europe to rebuild after WWII, and was a way to win influence in Europe and take away control from the USSR. |
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| a political, economic, and social worldview created by Karl Marx that is based on 3 principles: the dialectal and materialist concept of history, the critique of capitalism, and the advocacy of a proletarian revolution. This policy was used by Lenin, which he based communism off of. |
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| political action of making accusations of disloyalty, subversion, or treason without proper regard for evidence. The term specifically describes activities associated with the period in the United States known as the Second Red Scare, lasting roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s and characterized by heightened fears of communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. It began with Senator Joseph McCarthy. |
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| the Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953 when he was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the United States CIA. The successor put in place by the US, Reza Shah Pahlavi, became a dictator and was ousted in the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The coup led by the United States made the US very unpopular in Iran and had long lasting implications on the image of American in the Middle East. |
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| NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) |
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| an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on 4 April 1949. The NATO headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium, and the organization constitutes a system of collective defense whereby its member states agree to mutual defense in response to an attack by any external party. |
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| the second President of Egypt from 1954 until his death. He led the bloodless coup, which toppled the monarchy of King Farouk and heralded a new period of modernization and socialist reform in Egypt together with a profound advancement of pan-Arab nationalism. He was the main cause for the Suez Canal Crisis, and was a master and playing the US and the USSR against each other. |
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| the first Prime Minister of India, and a leading figure in the Indian Independence Movement. He was one of the founders of the Non-Alignment Movement, and a staunch supporter of complete independence from Britain. |
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| a 'market driven' approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that maximize the role of the private business sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state. |
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| a series of economic reforms passed by Congress in 1933 and created by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It focused on the 3 R’s: relief, recovery, and reform. This response to the Great Depression was a huge success and helped pull America out of the Depression. It also made Democrats the popular majority. |
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| the movement by nations during the Cold War to stay away from aligning with either America or the Soviets, and asserting independence from the 2 superpowers. |
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a 58-page formerly classified document authored by Paul Nitze that basically was a blueprint from American foreign policy during the Cold War. It correctly anticipated the fall of the Soviet Union, and was instrumental in dictating foreign policy during the Cold War.
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| OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) |
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| a cartel of twelve countries made up of Algeria, Angola, Ecuador, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela that seeks to protect the interest of oil exporting countries and maximize profits. The Six Day War between Israel and Arab nations resulted in the 1973 Oil Embargo. |
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| A central idea of Edward Said is Western knowledge about the East is not generated from facts or reality, but from preconceived archetypes that envision all "Eastern" societies as fundamentally similar to one another, and fundamentally dissimilar to "Western" societies. This ‘a priori’ knowledge establishes "the East" as antithetical to "the West". Such Eastern knowledge is constructed with literary texts and historical records that often are of limited understanding of the facts of life in the Middle East. |
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| Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi |
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| the emperor of Iran from September 16th, 1941 until he was overthrown during the Iranian Revolution on February 11th, 1979. He was the successor put in place by the United States to Mohammed Mosaddeq. |
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| literally means, “restructuring,” referring to the restructuring of the Soviet political and economic system and install by Mikhail Gorbachev. This policy is often argued to be one of the reasons for the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War. |
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| the policy of maximal publicity, openness, and transparency in the activities of all government institutions in the Soviet Union, together with freedom of information, introduced by Mikhail Gorbachev in the second half of the 1980s. This led to the admission of error of previous Soviet regimes, which discredited the belief that Communism was perfect and error free, and was a major reason for the fall of Communism and the end of the Cold War. |
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| a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of petroleum. Related to American dependence on foreign oil. |
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| a Chilean army general who was brought to power as president in a U.S.-backed coup d'état on September 11, 1973. His regime was ruthless in its oppression of political supporters, which made the US unpopular since they were the ones who had placed him in power. |
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| the incidence or process of transferring ownership of a business, enterprise, agency or public service from the public sector (government) to the private sector ("business"). This was one of the main components of capitalism and Western ideology, while the USSR favored state-run industries. |
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the economic policy of restraining trade between states, through methods such as tariffs on imported goods, restrictive quotas, and a variety of other government regulations designed to discourage imports, and prevent foreign take-over of native markets and companies. This was implemented by the United States to promote the American economy after WWI.
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| a war that results when opposing powers use third parties as substitutes for fighting each other directly. The USSR and US used Proxy Wars in Latin America and especially Africa to fight the Cold War. |
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| the 40th President of the United States, who served during the end of the Cold War. He made famous visits to China and Moscow, and was the only American President to visit both capitals during the Cold War. A former actor, he had a knack for giving stirring speeches, including his famous “Remarks at the Brandenburg Gate.” He was a close friend of Mikhail Gorbachev. |
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| Franklin Delano Roosevelt |
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| the only US President to be elected to more than 2 terms (four), FDR was one of the greatest US Presidents of all time. He was responsible for the New Deal and instrumental in Bretton Woods, the United Nations (League of Nations), and the Lend-Lease Act. He firmly established the United States as a superpower on a world stage, and was a firm supporter of the spread of democracy during the Cold War. |
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| a European dynasty of German Jewish origin that established European banking and finance houses from the late eighteenth century. |
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| SAP (Structural Adjustment Program) |
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| term used to describe the policy changes implemented by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (the Bretton Woods Institutions) in developing countries. These policy changes are conditions for getting new loans from the IMF or World Bank, or for obtaining lower interest rates on existing loans. Conditionalities are implemented to ensure that the money lent will be spent in accordance with the overall goals of the loan. |
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| a term used in international relations and refers to a situation in which actions by a state intended to heighten its security, such as increasing its military strength or making alliances, can lead other states to respond with similar measures, producing increased tensions that create conflict, even when no side really desires it. |
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| the freedom of the people of a given territory or national grouping to determine their own political status and how they will be governed without undue influence from any other country. Woodrow Wilson was a huge supporter of post WWI Self-Determination, as outlined in his 14 Points. |
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| a military doctrine based on the use of overwhelming power, dominant battlefield awareness, dominant maneuvers, and spectacular displays of force to paralyze an adversary's perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight. The doctrine was written by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade in 1996 and is a product of the National Defense University of the United States. |
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| the free market policies of Nobel Laureate Milton Friedman have risen to prominence in some countries because they were pushed through while the citizens were reacting to disasters or upheavals. It is implied that some man-made crises, such as the Falklands war, may have been created with the intention of being able to push through these unpopular reforms in their wake. |
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| a run-down area of a city characterized by substandard housing and squalor and lacking in tenure security. According to the United Nations, the proportion of urban dwellers living in slums decreased from 47 percent to 37 percent in the developing world between 1990 and 2005. However, due to rising population, the number of slum dwellers is rising. One billion people worldwide live in slums and the figure will likely grow to 2 billion by 2030. |
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| a political ideology that supports free economy, rejects socialism, promotes democratic elections, and protects worker’s rights. |
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| Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan |
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| a 10-year conflict that resulted in the request of aid from the Marxist Democratic Republic of Afghanistan to the USSR to help fight the Islamist Mujahedeen Resistance. The invasion began on December 24th, 1979 and ended with the withdrawal of Soviet troops on February 15th, 1989. It is often referred to as “The Soviet’s Vietnam.” |
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| the first Secretary General of the Soviet Union. He held power from 1922 to 1953. He launched plans of rapid industrialization and economic collectivization, which disrupted food production and led to the Great Soviet Famine of 1932-1933. He executed any challengers and created a cult of personality for himself. |
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| a form of violence based on the systematic ways in which a given social structure or social institution "kills people" by preventing them from meeting their basic needs. |
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| a term that arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned or not moving at all with either capitalism and NATO (which along with its allies represented the First World) or communism and the Soviet Union (which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. |
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| a Yugoslav President, he was the first and only Cominform member to defy Soviet hegemony. A backer of independent roads to socialism (sometimes referred to as "national communism" or “Titoism”), he was one of the main founders and promoters of the Non-Aligned Movement, and its first Secretary-General. As such, he supported the policy of nonalignment between the two hostile blocs in the Cold War. |
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| UNAMIR (United Nations Assistance Mission In Rwanda) |
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| a mission instituted by the United Nations to aid the implementation of the Arusha Accords, signed August 4, 1993, which were meant to end the Rwandan Civil War. The mission lasted from October 1993 to March 1996. Its activities were meant to aid the peace process between the Hutu-dominated Rwandese government and the Tutsi-dominated rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). |
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| the physical growth of urban areas as a result of global change. Urbanization is also defined by the United Nations as movement of people from rural to urban areas with population growth equating to urban migration. |
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| the term used to refer to smaller countries controlling superpowers. This was often done in the Cold War to the US or USSR by threatening to collapse or drift towards the enemy if aid was not given to that country. Egypt’s Nasser was a master at “Wagging the Dog.” |
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| the informal name for the Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance that was signed on May 14th, 1955 by 8 Eastern European countries. This basically created the Soviet Union, and was meant to be a response to NATO. |
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| the 28th US President, he practiced Isolationism but was forced to declare war in WWI when Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico and started sinking any American ship it could find. After WWI, he took control of the Armistice and was the leader of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. He is the author of the 14 Points and advocated helping Germany rebuild instead of punishing the shattered country. |
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| the February 4–11, 1945 wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union—President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and General Secretary Joseph Stalin, respectively—for the purpose of discussing Europe's postwar reorganization. Mainly, it was intended to discuss the re-establishment of the nations of war-torn Europe. |
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