World Issues Exam TERMS

"Globalony"

"Globalony"

Pankaj Ghemawat's term for the exaggerated public opinion claims of the influence of globalization.

Global/Transnational Issues

Have 2 facets: 1. Concerns that are transnational--crossing political boundaries of two or more nations AND/OR 2. Affect large numbers of people in the world

Benjamin Barber

Originator of the "McWorld" perspective-that the onrush of economic and ecological forces are producing a monoculture.

Thomas Friedman

Economist who wrote the book "The World is Flat"--argued that technological factors are making the world smaller.

Fundamentalism (increased because of globalization)

An increase in simplistic religious devotion amidst the disrupting influence of global forces take over local culture

Global South

generally refers to countries classified by the World Bank as low or middle income that are located in Africa, Asia, Oceania, Latin America and the Caribbean. This definition uses the term in a descriptive manner and is simply the most recent in a long list of catch-all concepts used to identify, define, and cluster the ‘poorer parts of the world’.

Global North

refers to those technically and socially well-developed countries, basically located in North America and Europe.

Samuel Huntington

Political Scientist and author of "The clash of civilizations"--believes that drinking Coke doesn't make Russians think like Americans

"Glocalization"

The phenomenon when corporations integrate local culture into their brand. (Eg: McDonalds serving sushi in Japan)

interstate

_______________ between countries

intrastate

_______________ within countries

IGOs

International Governmental Organization (UNICEF, World Bank, The UN)

NGOs

Nongovernmental organizations (Red Cross, Green Peace, World Vision)

TNC

Transnational Corporations (also known as MNCs-multinational corporations) Huge companies like Nike, Apple, Toyota that do business on a global scale

Global security

The multifaceted concept of protection that depends on states, alliances, health initiatives, trade blocs, and IGOs

NATO

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (formed after WWII of mostly Western Countries)

SEATO

South East Asian Treaty Organization (formed during the Cold War to form alliances against communist governments)

Shanghai Cooperation Organization

A Chinese treaty alliance that formed with Russia to counterbalance NATO

NAFTA

North American Free Trade Agreement--created in 1993 to eliminate tariff barriers between the US and Mexico/Canada

The UN (United Nations)

A 193 member IGO

The General Assembly (of the UN)

Passes resolutions to pressure other members to change policies that are harmful to global security

The Security Council (of the UN)

The 5 permanent members of the UN (China, US, UK, France, Russia) who each independently have veto power--any military decision the UN makes must be arrived at unanimously or no UN forces can be used (critics argue this leaves no recourse for these powerful countries to be have their unjust military actions rebuked)

US state department definition of terrorism

"premeditated, politically motivated, violence perpetrated against noncombatant targets, but sub-national groups or clandestine agents."

Robert Pape

Political Science professor and author of “Dying to Win” where he argues that terrorism be defined as “The killing of innocents for a political cause.”

al-Qaeda

means "the foundation" a radical Sunni terror organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden and active in Iraq/Iran/Saudi Arabia

Hezbollah

means "the party of God" a radical Shiite terror organization largely located in Lebanon on a mission to destroy Israel

Shabaab

meaning "the Youth" a Somalia-based militant Islamist group aligned with Al-Qaeda.

Boko Haram

Haram is from the Arabic "forbidden"; boko meaning "fake", (which is used to refer to secular Western education). Boko Haram has also been translated as "Western influence is a sin/sacrilege" They are a terror organization active in Somalia

ISIS

"The Islamic State in Syria"--active in Egypt, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, & Afghanistan

AI

Artificial Intelligence

UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicles

Pathological Theory

The idea that terrorist join these organizations because there is something flawed/dysfunctioning in their thinking/psychology (comparisons to serial killers abound)

Sociological Theory

The idea that terrorist are made by certain conditions--often oppressive environments that push them into motives for political revenge.

Nihilism Theory

The idea that terrorists (nor anyone else) do not really know why they join terror groups.

Snowflake Theory

Terrorists are "soft" young impressionable individuals who are groomed by terror organizations because they are naive and impressionable

SQT

Significant Quest Theory: argues that humans join groups that provide them with a.) personal significance b.) a unifying political or religious ideology c.) a community of support

Takfir

(TocK-fear)the act of declaring a Muslim an apostate & using this status to commit violence against that person

NATO’s “Article 5”

that any attack on a NATO member in Europe or North America “shall be considered an attack against them all.”

nationalism

a shared sense of identity based on important social distinctions that has the purpose of gaining or keeping control of the group's own destiny

imagined community

because most citizens of a country, despite their strong feelings of fellowship, will never actually meet--let alone get to know one another, but the feeling of unity remains

state/country

a political unit that has sovereignty over a geographical area (Example: Canada, Mexico)

nation

a tightly-knit group of people which share a common culture (Example: Mayan people, Kurds, Palestinians)

The French Revolution

The defining point for nationalism

nation-state

a single nation within the boundaries of a single State

Civic nationalism

associated with the Western experience and is based on citizenship rather than on ethnic linkages

ethnic nationalism

associated with the global south...drawing its ideological bonds from the people and their native history. It relies on elements that are considered purely unique to a group, such as collective memory, common language and values, and shared religion, myth, and symbolism. It is dependent on blood ties, bonds to the land, and native traditions.

official nationalism

Pro-state nationalism supports the existing state. It tends to originate in, or at least be guided by, the rulers of the state

"law of return"

mandates that anyone who identifies themselves as Jewish qualifies for Israeli citizenship as soon as they arrive in the state, regardless of birthplace

Zionism

a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel.

PLO

Palestinian Liberation Organization

intifada

"uprising" (literally "shaking off")--the major rebellions of Palestinians against Jewish settlers

Hamas

Violent terrorist organization who thought the PLO was not effective in its resistance

Resolution 181

(1947) UN proposal to create a two-state solution in Palestine (Palestinians rejected it)

settlers

illegal migration of Israeli citizens who move into the West Bank

The two-state solution

Early proposals to mediate the Israeli–Palestinian conflict envisions an independent State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, west of the Jordan River. This was the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine was a proposal by the United Nations, which recommended a partition of Mandatory Palestine at the end of the British Mandate. On 29 November 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted the Plan known as Resolution 181.

Manufacturing Consent

a 1988 book by Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky. It argues that the mass communication media of the U.S. "are effective and powerful ideological institutions that carry out a system-supportive propaganda function

5 media “filters”

Ownership, Advertising, The Media Elites, Flack, A Common Enemy

natural resources

materials and energy found nature that are essential or useful to humans.

Geopolitics

The importance of geographical factors in international politics

environmental security

The maintenance of the regenerative capacity of life-supporting ecosystems in order to safeguard essential conditions for peace and sustainable development.

% of Interstate Wars fought over issues of natural resources since 1640?

more than 50%

necessary natural resource

those resources which are essential for survival (food, water, air)

substitutable natural resource

those resources which can be exchanged to maintain survival (corn, wheat, rice, potatoes etc)

Boundary Resources

natural resources that are located within a fixed border of a country

transboundary resources

natural resources that span the borders or two or more states.

second order effects

the unintended effects from policy decisions that are not calculated or foreseen. For example: the concern that depleting natural resources will ALWAYS be a transboundary issue (for example-deforestation may contribute to climate change for ALL)

economic invisibility of nature

Pavan Sukhdev’s notion that resources that are “free” like are taken for granted and eventually lost because we fail to understand how they are part of a bigger ecosystem and are extremely expensive to replace.

mean species abundance

The amount of the biomass available in the environment (the less of it available (due to things like topsoil erosion) means less capacity for life.

Green Carbon

The carbon trapped in living plants (as a result of photosynthesis) taking the CO2 out of the air and turning it into plant matter.

Blue Carbon

Coastal and aquatic carbon trapped in marine life (phytoplankton, seaweed) and in sediment that falls to the bottom of bodies of water.

Black Carbon

incomplete inorganic combustion of fossil fuels (contains soot and is black in color) absorbs visible sunlight reflected off the earth’s surface creating a greenhouse effect, causes respiratory problems

Brown Carbon

the combustion of biomass that is organic (and is brown in color) is a contributing factor to climate change, and causes respiratory problems.

UDHR

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1st generation human rights

They fundamentally civil and political rights. They serve negatively to protect the individual from excesses of the state. First-generation rights include, among other things, the right to life, equality before the law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, property rights, the right to a fair trial, and voting rights.

2nd generation human rights

The economic, social, and cultural rights. They guarantee different members of the citizenry equal conditions and treatment. Secondary rights would include a right to be employed in just and favorable condition, rights to food, housing and health care, as well as social security and unemployment benefits.

3rd generation human rights

the rights to development, to peace, to a healthy environment, to share in the natural resources that are common to humankind, to communication and humanitarian assistance.

Universal (stance on Human Rights)

The idea that each of the rights in the UDHR is absolute and pertains to all individuals regardless of one’s citizenship status.

Relativist (stance on Human Rights)

The idea that countries or cultures can be exempted from the UDHR like child labor or the subordination of women.

GDP per capita

an economic metric that breaks down a country's economic output per person. Economists use GDP per capita to determine how prosperous countries are based on their economic growth GDP per capita is calculated by dividing the GDP of a nation by its population.

resource curse

aka “Dutch Disease” where a country that has an abundance of natural resources can still have a low GDP per capita

the classic theory of evil

when a country discovers a natural resource foreign investors buy that currency to obtain the natural resource which causes the currency to increase in value. This creates a problem for exportable goods as they also become more expensive meaning not as many people will buy them and they lose sales. Meanwhile the increased currency from natural resources will cause the government to spend on the local economy (infrastructure) and workers will move from exporting industries in search of better paying jobs in the local economy.

evil usurper theory

How a country rich in natural resources can still have a stagnant economy because the government uses the income from those natural resource sales to keep its people happy, bribe local officials, all in an attempt to keep and maintain power.

The “butterfly effect”

When something small or insignificant can create a large impact if it happens to tip the balance of other finely tuned systems, causing other changes that create a major (often disastrous) event.

SDGs

Sustainable Development Goals: the 17 international development goals to be achieved by 2030 addressing poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, communicable disease, education, gender inequality, environmental damage and the global partnership.

infectious disease

A disease that is caused by a pathogen and that can be spread from one individual to another. (HIV/AIDS)

non-infectious disease

a disease that cannot spread from one person to another (Cancer)

WHO

World Health Organization

food security

People's ability to access sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life.

Undernutrition

The condition in which not enough calories are ingested to maintain health

Overnutrition

Too much food energy or excess nutrients to the degree of causing disease or increasing risk of disease; a form of malnutrition

Tuberculosis

An infectious disease that may affect almost all tissues of the body, especially the lungs

Ebola

A contagious viral disease originating in Africa. It is transmitted by blood and body fluids and causes body organs and vessels to leak blood, usually resulting in death.

Smallpox

The overall deadliest known disease in the history of the world. In the 20th century alone there were approximately 500,000,000 people who died of this disease.

Polio

A highly contagious infectious disease of the spinal cord caused by a filterable virus.

HIV/AIDS

Virus that destroys the immune system that should protect the body from diseases. The disease is passed from person to person through sexual acts, blood transfusions, used hypodermic needles, or from mother to child during birth.

Malaria

A disease caused by mosquitoes implanting parasites in the blood.

Cholera

an acute intestinal infection caused by ingestion of contaminated water or food

mental illness

The general category of differing disorders that affects a person's thoughts, emotions, and behaviors.

holistic approach

Within traditional medicine, a manner of understanding health such that it encompasses all aspects - physical, mental, social, and spiritual - of a person's life.

ideology of abundance

Walter Brueggemann's phrase to describe the loving generosity of God that "there is enough to go around-as long as each of us only takes what we need."