Global Diplomacy, Environmental Policy, and Human Rights Abuses

Vocabulary terms covering international political and economic organizations, major environmental treaties, political power shifts, and historical instances of genocide.

United Nations (UN)

The world's largest international intergovernmental organization, composed of $193$ member states, established on October $24$, $1945$, to maintain international peace and security.

North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

A landmark trilateral trade pact between the United States, Canada, and Mexico that took effect in $1994$ and was officially replaced by the USMCA on July $1$, $2020$.

European Union (EU)

A political and economic union of $27$ member states in Europe with a population over $450$ million and a combined GDP of around €$18.8$ trillion.

Climate change

Long-term shifts in global or regional temperatures and weather patterns primarily driven by human activities, specifically the burning of fossil fuels.

Greenhouse gas (GHG)

An atmospheric gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, trapping heat near the planet's surface to create the greenhouse effect.

Emissions

The discharge of gases and pollutants, such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and carbon dioxide, primarily from burning fossil fuels in vehicles, industrial facilities, and buildings.

Kyoto Protocol

A landmark international climate agreement adopted in $1997$ that committed industrialized nations to legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Paris Climate Agreement

A legally binding $2015$ UN treaty signed by nearly $195$ nations aiming to limit global temperature rises to well below $2^{\circ}C$ and ideally $1.5^{\circ}C$.

Environmentalism

A broad social, political, and ethical movement dedicated to protecting, preserving, and restoring the natural environment by minimizing harmful human impacts.

Coup (Coup d'état)

A sudden, often illegal, and sometimes violent seizure of a government's power by a small group, such as military leaders or political elites.

Junta

An authoritarian government led by a committee of military leaders who seize control of a country, typically following a coup d'état.

Augusto Pinochet

A Chilean army officer and military dictator who ruled Chile from $1973$ to $1990$ after leading a junta to overthrow President Salvador Allende.

Jorge Rafael Videla

The Argentine general and dictator who served as president of Argentina from $1976$ to $1981$ during the National Reorganization Process.

Madres de la Plaza de Mayo

An Argentine human rights association formed by mothers in response to the disappearance of their children during the oppressive reign of Jorge Rafael Videla.

Khmer Rouge

A radical communist movement led by Pol Pot that ruled Cambodia from $1975$ to $1979$, causing the deaths of approximately $1.5$ to $3$ million people.

Pol Pot

A Cambodian politician and dictator who ruled Democratic Kampuchea from $1975$ until his overthrow in $1979$ during the Cambodian-Vietnamese War.

Cambodian genocide

The systematic persecution and killing of approximately $2$ million citizens (around $25\%$ of the population) by the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot.

Hutu

A Bantu-speaking ethnic group representing the majority population in Rwanda and Burundi, native to the African Great Lakes region.

Tutsi

An ethnic minority group in Central Africa primarily living in Rwanda and Burundi, targeted in the tragic $1994$ genocide where an estimated $1,000,000$ people were murdered.

Rwandan genocide

A state-sponsored extermination in $1994$ where Hutu extremist militias slaughtered between $500,000$ and $1,000,000$ Tutsis and moderate Hutus in about $100$ days.

Yugoslavia

A country in Central Europe and the Balkans (existing from $1918$ to $1992$) that disintegrated into seven independent nations during the $1990s$.

Slobodan Milošević

A Yugoslav and Serbian politician who served as President of Serbia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia between $1989$ and his overthrow in $2000$..

Ethnic cleansing

The systematic, forceful removal of a specific ethnic, racial, or religious group from a geographic area to make the territory ethnically homogeneous.

Bosnian genocide

Attrocities committed during the $1992$-$1995$ Bosnian War, including the Srebrenica massacre of July $1995$ perpetrated by the Army of Republika Srpska.

Darfur genocide

Identity-based mass atrocities and ethnic cleansing committed against non-Arab communities, such as the Fur, Masalit, and Zaghawa groups in western Sudan.

Uyghur genocide

Ongoing human rights abuses committed by the government of China since $2014$ against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang.