AP EURO Key Terms Chapters 28, 29, 30

Unit 9 Key Terms

Cold War (944)

The rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States that divided much of Europe into a Soviet-aligned Communist bloc and a U.S.-aligned capitalist bloc between 1945 and 1989. Called Cold War because it did not involve direct battle and fights, but instead an intense rivalry and competition, including a space race and nuclear arms war. Europe was divided into East and West, with both political divides like the Iron Curtain and physical ones like the Berlin Wall representing this divide. War was hard on the people and brought repression and thus migration, and resulted in a Western victory and the disbanding of the Soviet Union 1991. Eastern countries struggled to shift to communism, and the nuclear arms race was stopped with the process of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Politics became more convoluted and complicated, with adversarial and non-aggressionist policies taking hold.

Displaced Persons (945)

Postwar refugees, including 13 million Germans, former Nazi prisoners and forced laborers, and orphaned children. Also referred to as DPs, many fled due to being expelled under the terms of Allied agreements or to escape advancing Soviet troops. To accommodate these people who were in need of food and shelter, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) opened over 760 DP camps and spent $10 billion to give them resources for survival. For many, going home was not the best option, as wen they got home they were seen as politically unreliable (from USSR felt exposed to West) and faced prison terms, exile to labor camps in the Siberian gulag, and execution if extreme enough. Jewish DPs especially felt alienated and unwelcome, and many stayed in special camps in Germany, eventually mass migrating when Israel was created 1948.

Truman Doctrine (949)

America’s policy geared to containing communism to those countries already under Soviet control. Made in response to ideas in early 1947 when it seemed to many Americans that the USSR was determined to export communism by subversion throughout Europe and the world, where it boasted the policy of containment, first advocated by diplomat George Kennan 1946. The doctrine promised that the U.S. would use diplomatic, economic, and even military means to resist the expansion of communism anywhere on the globe, with examples of action being in the Greek Civil War (1944-1949) to counter communism in Turkey and in response to the Soviet atomic bomb 1949.

Marshall Plan (949)

American plan for providing economic aid to Western Europe to help it rebuild. In 1947 Western Europe was on the verge of economic collapse, experiencing scarce food supplies, high inflation, and an intense black market. Aid was offered because the U.S saw that a politically and economically stable Western Europe would be an effective block against the popular appeal of communism. Formulated by secretary of state George C. Marshall, the plan was intended to be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist. When the plan ended in 1951, the U.S had given $13 billion aid to 15 nations, Europe was on the way to recovery. It was offered to East Bloc countries but was denied due to fear of Western influence.

Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON) (950)

An economic organization of Communist states meant to help rebuild East Bloc countries under Soviet auspices. After the Marshall Plan was instated to help the West side recover from its economic downfall, the East Bloc was offered the same assistance but ended up declining to avoid Western influence from threatening Soviet control. Thus, in 1949 COMECON was established to rebuild the East instead. The limiting of these two institutions heightened Cold War tensions and further instated a divide between communism and capitalism which would make the fixing of the Cold War a much harder and messier problem. The two sides were growing increasingly distanced and harder to reunite.

NATO (950)

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, an anti-Soviet military alliance of Western governments. Formed by the U.S. in 1949, NATO was designed to keep the Russians out, the Americans in, and the Germans down. West Germany joined in 1955 and was allowed to rebuild its military to help defend Western Europe again possible Soviet attack. That same year, the Soviets countered by organizing the Warsaw Pact. In both political and military terms, most of Europe was divided into two hostile blocs. NATO would continue to intervene in foreign affairs, since the Berlin crisis showed that containment worked and inspired the U.S. to continue to maintain a strong military presence. Its continued expansionism after the Cold War would also create tensions with Europe and the U.S. and create worries about how wise and ethical the latter was in their efforts to maintain peace.

Warsaw Pact (950)

Soviet-backed military alliance of East Block Communist countries in Europe. Formed in response to NATO in 1955 and served as a counter-acting force, dividing Europe politically and in military terms into two hostile blocs. This growing tension and conflict quickly spread around the globe. The Cold War expanded into East Asia, when Communist North Korea (Soviet-backed) in 1950 was faced with U.S troops by Truman. This war was indecisive and left Korea divided into a Communist North, but Capitalist south. This showed that though the superpowers might maintain a fragile peace in Europe, they were perfectly willing to engage in open conflict in non-western territories. The two sides would continue to fight, and the Warsaw Pact served as the turning point into a more violent and conflict-filled era of the Cold War.

Economic Miracle (952)

Term contemporaries used to describe rapid economic growth, often based on the consumer sector, in post-World War II in Western Europe. After the war, economic conditions had been terrible. Infrastructure barely functioned, inflation and a black market led to shortages and hardship, but the Marshall Plan let conditions improve in the west. The Korean War in 1950 further stimulated economic activity, and Europe entered a period of rapid economic progress lasting into the late 1960s. By the late 1950s the miracle had begun, and some causes can be traced back to American aid and the new objective of economic growth by all western European governments due to the avoiding of a return to stagnation. Western postwar governments thus embraced new policies that led to a lasting social consensus, adopting Keynesian economics, government planning, and free-market capitalism, along with the nationalization of sectors of the economy and economic regulation, paired with welfare provisions paid for with taxes. This framework lasted until the mid-1970s.

Christian Democrats (952)

Center-right political parties that rose to power in Western Europe after the Second World War. They came into power to guide the postwar recovery after Nazi occupation and the way had discredited old ideas and leaders. Christian Democratic parties became important power brokers, they offered voters tired of radical politics a center-right vision of reconciliation and recovery. Socialists and Communists also increased their power and prestige. Across much of Continental Europe, the Christian Democrats defeated their left-wing competition. In Italy, they were the leading party in the first postwar elections in 1946, and in early 1948 they won an absolute majority in the Parliament. They led the Popular Republican Movement in France, which provided some of the best postwar leaders after Charles de Gaulle resigned. West Germany also elected the party. Christian Democrats drew inspiration from CHR/EU heritage, rejected authoritarianism and narrow nationalism, and placed their faith in democracy and liberalism. They preached traditional family values.

Common Market (954)

The European Economic Community, created by six western and central European countries in the West Bloc in 1957 as part of a larger search for European unity. Created by the Treaty of Rome, signed by the Coal and Steel Community. The first goal of the treaty was a gradual reduction of all tariffs between the states to create a single market almost as big as that of the U.S., while other goals included the free movement of capital and labor and common economic policies and institutions. The Common Market encouraged trade among European states, promoted global exports, and helped build shared resources for the modernization of national industries. It fired imaginations and encouraged the hopes of some for rapid progress toward political as well as economic union, which was then shut down by nationalism. Charles de Gaulle vetoed the market’s scheduled advent of majority rule. Europeans would establish ever-closer economic ties, but the Common Market remained a union of independent, sovereign states.

Socialist Realism (957)

An artistic movement that followed the dictates of Communist ideals, enforced by state control in the Soviet Union and East Bloc countries in the 1950s and 1960s. Part of Communist censorship which purged culture and art of independent voices in aggressive campaigns that imposed rigid anti-Western ideological conformity. This movement idealized the working classes and Soviet Union. Party propagandists denounced artists who strayed from the party line, and forced many talented writers, composers, and film directors to produce works that conformed to the state’s political goals. In short, the postwar East Bloc resembled the USSR in the 1930s, though police terror was less intense.

De-Stalinization (959)

The liberalization of the post-Stalin Soviet Union led by reformer Nikita Khrushchev. Stalin died in 1953, and the fear he created made the need for reform apparent. At the Twentieth party Congress in 1956 Khrushchev game his “secret speech”, openly admitting Stalin’s errors and creation of a cult of personality. He harshly criticized the leader and the speech went on to be read at Communist Party movements throughout the country, strengthening the reform movement. The party maintained a monopoly on political power, but new members were brought in. State planners shifted resources toward consumer goods and agriculture from heavy industry and the military, and relaxed Stalinist workplace controls. This sparked a limited consumer revolution. Writers like Boris Pasternak were then able to be freed from the constraints of Socialist Realism, and foreign policy was also de-Stalinized. Khrushchev negotiated with Western diplomats, obtaining independence for a neutral Austria. This relaxed Cold War tensions considerably and led to a wooing of Asia and Africa, even in non-Communist areas with promises of support and economic aid.

Decolonization (963)

The postwar reversal of Europe’s overseas expansion caused by the rising demand of the colonized peoples themselves, the declining power of European nations, and the freedoms promised by U.S and Soviet ideals. Reshaped the world map, adding over fifty new nations in Africa, Asia, and the Middle east to the global community in just two decades. In some cases this went smoothly, but other times European powers determined to preserve colonial rule for its profit and national pride forced decolonization to only come after long and bloody struggles. Decolonization brought fundamental gains in human freedom but left lasting problems for the former colonized and colonizers alike. Causes include desire for national self-determination, racial equality, and dignity. The colonies were on the defensive by 1939, Europe was growing economically weak and thus keeping colonies was harder and Japanese driving imperial rulers out of East Asia shattered myths of European invincibility. The U.S and Soviet Union freed colonies from the other to try and stop the spread of the enemy ideology, and some famous figures in decolonization include Mao Zedong, Mohandas Gandhi, and Abdel Nasser.

Nonalignment (965)

Policy of postcolonial governments to remain neutral in the Cold War and play both the United States and the Soviet Union for what they could get. After they had won independence, the leaders of the new nations often found themselves trapped between the superpowers of the United States and Soviet Union, compelled to voice support for one bloc or the other, but this way seemed better for many. This led to the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in 1961, where key values include respect for sovereignty, equality and territorial integrity, rejection of the possibility of an unconstitutional change of government, preservation of the inalienable right of each state to determine its own systems, refusal from aggression and use of force, and the non-application of any unilateral economic, political, or military measures.

Neocolonialism (972)

A postcolonial system that perpetuates Western economic exploitation in former colonial territories. Even after decolonization, western European countries managed to increase their economic and cultural ties with their former African colonies in the 1960s and 1970s. Above all, they used the lure of special trading privileges and provided heavy investment in French-and English-language education to enhance a powerful Western presence in the new African states, creating the idea that western Europe and the United States had imposed a system of neocolonialism. These powers were extending to Africa and much of Asia the kind of economic subordination that the United States had imposed on Latin America in the nineteenth century.

Guest Worker Programs (973)

Government-run programs in Western Europe designed to recruit labor for the booming postwar economy. The 1850s to 1930s had been an age of global migration, and now the 1950s and 1960s had a similar wave. Many Europeans moved across national borders seeking work. The general pattern was from south to north. Workers from less developed countries like Italy, Spain, and socialist Yugoslavia moved to the industrialized north, particularly to West Germany, which—having lost 5 million people during the war—was in desperate need of able-bodied workers. Under guest worker programs, West Germany signed labor agreements with Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Turkey, and the North African countries of Tunisia aND Morocco. Most guest workers were young, unskilled single men who labored for low wages in entry level jobs and sent much of their pay to their families at home. The plans originally hoped for these workers to return to their home countries after a specified period, but many built new lives and ended up living permanently.

Postcolonial Migration (973)

The postwar movement of people from former colonies and the developing world into Europe. In contrast to guest workers, who joined formal recruitment programs, postcolonial migrants could often claim citizenship rights from their former colonizers and moved spontaneously. Immigrants from the Caribbean, India, Africa, and Asia moved to Britain: people from North Africa, especially Algeria, and from sub-Saharan countries such as Cameroon and the Ivory Coast moved to france, and some migrants went to eastern Europe. These new migration patterns had dramatic results. Immigrant labor helped fuel economic recovery, growing ethnic diversity changed the face of Europe and enriched the cultural life of the continent. Adaptation to European lifestyles was sometime different and immigrants lived in separate communities speaking their own languages, facing discrimination and xenophobia. Questions arose over whether they would ever be able to fit in.

Ostpolitik (983)

German for Chancellor Willy Brandt’s new “Eastern policy”; West Germany’s attempt in the 1970s to ease diplomatic tensions with East Germany, exemplifying the policies of dètente. Brandt aimed at nothing less than a comprehensive peace settlement for central Europe and the two postwar German states. He believed that building the Berlin Wall in 1961 revealed the limitations of West Germany’s official hard line toward the East Bloc. He then negotiated new treaties with the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, as well as Poland, that formally accepted existing state boundaries—rejected by West Germany’s government since 1945—in return for a mutual renunciation of force or the threat of force. Using the imaginative formula of “two German states within one German nation,” he broke decisively with past policy and entered into direct relations with East Germany. His gesture at the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial (fell to knees in prayer) and the treaty with Poland were part of this plan.

Détente (983)

The progressive relaxation of Cold War tensions that emerged in the early 1970s. Brandt’s Ostpolitik was part of this. Though Cold War hostilities continued in the developing world, diplomatic relations between the United States and Soviet Union grew less strained. The superpowers agreed to limit the testing and proliferation of nuclear weapons and in 1975 mounted a joint U.S.-U.S.S.R. space mission. The move toward détente reached a high point when the US, Canada, the Soviet Union, and almost all European nations met in Helsinki to sign the Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe in 1975. Under what came to be known as the Helsinki Accords, the 35 participating nations agreed that Europe’s existing political frontiers could not be changed by force. They also accepted numerous provisions guaranteeing the civil rights and political freedoms of their citizens. This helped diminish Cold War conflict and encouraged East Bloc dissidents, who could now demand respect for human rights.

Second Vatican Council (985)

A meeting of Catholic leaders convened from 1962 to 1965 that initiated a number of reforms, including the replacement of Latin with local languages in church services, designed to democratize the church and renew its appeal. European nations preserved distinctive national cultures even during the consumer revolution, but social change nonetheless occurred. The moral authority of religious doctrine lost ground before the growing materialism of consumer society. In predominantly Protestant lands—Great Britain, Scandinavia, and parts of West Germany—church membership and regular attendance both declined significantly. Even in traditionally Catholic countries, such as Italy, Ireland, and France, outward signs of popular belief seemed to falter, leading to the council. It called for new openness in Catholic theology and declared that masses would be said in local languages, not Latin. This did little to halt the slide toward secularization.

New Left (988)

A 1960s, counterculture movement that embraced updated forms of Marxism to challenge both Western capitalism and Soviet-style communism. Dreaming of economic justice and freer, more tolerant societies, students activists in Western Europe and the United States embraced new forms of Marxism, creating a multidimensional and heterogenous movement that came to be known as the New Left. In general, adherents to the movement’s various stands felt that Marxism had been perverted to serve the needs of a repressive totalitarian estate, but Western capitalism was better. They needed a humanitarian style of socialism that could avoid the worst excesses of both capitalism and Soviet-style communism. They attacked the conformity of consumer society, saying it only filled false needs. This fascinated student intellectuals, leading to lifestyle rebellion and the slogan “the personal is political”. Soon, the sexual revolution emerged from these ideas.

Brezhnev Doctrine (992)

Doctrine created by Leonid Brezhnev that held that the Soviet Union had the right to intervene in any East Bloc country when necessary to preserve Communist rule. Shortly after the invasion of Czechoslovakia, Brezhnev announced that the Soviets would now follow the doctrine. The 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia was the crucial event of the Brezhnev era: it demonstrated the determination of the Communist elite to maintain the status quo throughout the Soviet bloc, which would last for another twenty years. At the same time, the Soviet crackdown encouraged dissidents to change their focus from “reforming” Communist regimes from within to building a civil society that might bring internal freedoms independent of the regimes.

OPEC (993)

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. The great postwar boom had been fueled in large part by cheap oil from the Middle East. The fate of the developed work was thus increasingly linked to this turbulent region, where strains began to show in the late 1960s. In the Six-Day War, Israel quickly defeated Egypt, Jordan, and Syria and occupied more of the former territories of Palestine, angering Arab leaders an exacerbating anti-Western feeling in the Arab states. Economics fed tension between the Arab states and the West. Over the years OPEC had watched the price of crude oil decline consistently compared with the rising prices of Western manufactured goods. They then decided to reverse that trend by presenting a united front against Western oil companies. In October after the fourth Arab-Israeli war OPEC declared an embargo on oil shipments to the nations who supported Israel and raised oil prices, which quadrupled within a year.

Stagflation (993)

Term coined in the early 1980s to describe the combination of low growth and high inflation that led to a worldwide recession. Coming on the heels of the upheaval in the international monetary system, the revolution in energy prices plunged the world into its worst economic decline since the 1930s. Energy-intensive industries that had driven the economy up in the 1950s and 1960s now dragged it down. Unemployment rose, productivity and living standards declined, inflation soared. By 1976 a modest recovery was in progress, but three years later a fundamentalist Islamic revolution overthrew the shah of Iran. Oil prices rose again, and recovery did not begin again until 1982. Fears arose that the European Common market would disintegrate, but it continued to attract new members like Britain, Denmark, and Ireland. As a result of stagflation, the gap between rich and poor countries grew and an international debt crisis arose.

Postindustrial Society (993)

A society that relies on high-tech and service-oriented jobs for economic growth rather than heavy industry and manufacturing jobs. Even though the world economy slowly began to recover in the 1980s, Western Europe could no longer create enough jobs to replace those that were lost. By the end of the 1970s, the foundations of economic growth in the industrialized West had begun shifting to high-tech information industries, such as computing and biotechnology, and to services, including medicine, banking, and finance. This period is also called the information age, as technological advances streamlined the production of many goods, making many industrial jobs superfluous. In Western Europe, heavy industry, such as steel, mining, automobile manufacture, and shipbuilding, lost ground. Factory closings led to the emergence of rust belts, or prosperous areas turning to ghost lands. Unemployment rose, and punk culture captured the hostility of the times. Governments spent more on welfare to help the people.

Neoliberalism (994)

Philosophy of 1980s conservatives who argued for privatization of state-run industries and decreased government spending on social services. This idea held its roots in the free market, laissez-faire policies favored by 18th century liberal economists such as Adam Smith. Neoliberal theorists like U.S economist Milton Friedman argued that governments should cut support for social services, including housing, education, and health insurance; limit business subsidies; and retreat from regulation of all kinds. It should be distinguished from modern American liberalism, which supports welfare programs and some state regulation of the economy. Neoliberal effects can be seen in Great Britain, where it helped elect Margaret Thatcher and erode the electoral base of the Labour Party.

Privatization (994)

The sale of state-managed industries such as transportation and communication networks to private owners; a key aspect of broader neoliberal economic reforms meant to control government spending, increase private profits, and foster economic growth, which were implemented in Western Europe in response to the economic crisis of the 1970s. Neoliberals called for this, claiming that it would reduce government spending and lead to greater workplace efficiency. Neoliberals believed that private profits were the real engine of economic growth, which is why the main goal was to increase these. Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain used a broad privatization campaign to erode the base of Britain’s socialist Labour Party and bring to the nation significant economic reforms.

Developed Socialism (1001)

A term used by Communist leaders to describe the socialist accomplishments of their societies, such as nationalized industry, collective agriculture, and extensive social welfare programs. By the 1970s many of the professed goals of communism had been achieved, and Communist leaders in central and eastern Europe and the Soviet Union adopted this policy, often called real existing socialism. Poland was the exception to the collectivization of agriculture. Though some people, particularly party members, had greater access to opportunities and resources, the gap between rich and poor was far smaller than in the West. Everyday life under this policy was defined by an uneasy mixture of outward conformity and private disengagement—or apathy. The Communist Party dominated public life, holding public events which people participated in, but at home grumbled about.

Solidarity (1005)

Independent Polish trade union that worked for workers’ rights and political reform through the 1980s. Led by the feisty Lenin Shipyards electrician and devout Catholic Lech Wałęsa, the workers proceeded to organize a free and democratic trade union. Solidarity worked to shape an active civil society, becoming a national union supported by the Catholic Church with 9.5 million members. Cultural and intellectual freedom blossomed in Poland, gaining the movement public support. The movement was self-limiting, meaning that they only wanted to defend the concessions won in the Gdansk Agreement, meaning Solidarity practiced moderation and refused to directly challenge the Communist monopoly on political power. Solidarity fell apart after a conflict with the Soviet Unity, but survived underground.

Perestroika (1008)

Economic restructuring and reform implemented by Premier Mikhail Gorbachev in the Soviet Union in 1985. In his first year in office, Gorbachev attacked corruption and incompetence in the bureaucracy and consolidated his power. He condemned alcoholism and drunkenness, which were deadly scourges of Soviet society, and worked out an ambitious reform program designed to transform and restructure the economy n order to provide for the real needs of the Soviet population. To accomplish this, an easing of government price controls on some goods, more independence for state enterprises, and the creation of profit-seeking private cooperatives to provide personal services were permitted. Shortages eventually grew, and soon consumer dissatisfaction threatened Gorbachev’s leadership.

Glasnost (1009)

Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev’s popular campaign for openness in government and the media. After losing support due to the faults of perestroika, Gorbachev’s new policy was popular in a country where censorship, dull uniformity, and outright lies had long characterized public discourse, and marked a break with the past. Long-banned émigré writers sold millions of copies, and denunciations of Stalin became standard fare. The Soviet government also started to issue daily reports on Chernobyl, a shift from its usual secretive nature. This openness went further than intended and led to something approaching free speech, a veritable cultural revolution.

Velvet Revolution (1011)

The term given to the relatively peaceful overthrow of communism in Czechoslovakia; the label came to signify the collapse of the East Bloc in general in 1989 to 1990. This grew out of popular demonstrations led by students and joined by intellectuals and playwright Václav Havel. When the protestors took control of the streets, the Communist government resigned, leading to a power-sharing agreement termed the “Government of National Understanding.” Havel was declared president at the end of 1989.

Ethnic Cleansing (1026)

The attempt to establish ethnically homogenous territories by intimidation, forced deportation, and killing. This policy impacted Yugoslavia when in 1992 the civil war spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, which had also declared it's independence. Serbs refused to live under the more numerous Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks. Yugoslavia had once been a tolerant and largely successful multi-ethnic state with different groups living side by side and often intermarrying. The new goal of the armed factions in the Bosnian civil war was ethnic cleansing. The Yugoslavian army and irregular militias attempted to “cleanse” the territory of its non-Serb residents, unleashing ruthless brutality, with murder, rape, destruction, and the herding of refugees into concentration camps. Before the fighting in Bosnia ended, some 300k people were dead and millions had been forced to flee their homes.

Color Revolutions (1027)

A series of popular revolts and insurrection that challenged regional politicians and Russian interests in the former Soviet republics during the first decade of the twenty-first century. Though Putin encouraged the former Soviet republics to join the Commonwealth of Independent States, a loose confederation dominated by Russia that supposedly represented regional common interests, stability and agreement proved elusive. Popular protests and revolts challenged local politicians and Russian interests alike. In Georgia, the so-called Rose Revolution (November 2003) brought a pro-Western, pro-NATO leader to power. In Ukraine, the Orange Revolution challenged the results of the national election and expressed popular nationalist desires for more distance from Russia. Similar revolutions in Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, and Moldova exemplified the unpredictable path toward democratization in the new republics that bordered the powerful Russian Federation. These revolutions were named this because they were named after colors.

Globalization (1028)

The emergence of a freer, more technologically connected global economy, accompanied by a worldwide exchange of cultural, political, and religious ideas. Europe has long had close—sometimes productive, sometimes destructive—ties to other parts of the world. yet new global relationships and increasing interdependence did emerge in the last decades of the 20th century. First, the growth of multinational corporations restructured national economies on a global scale. Second, an array of international governing bodies, such a s the EU and UN, the WTO, and NGOs increasingly set policies that challenged the autonomy of traditional nation-states. Finally, the expansion and ready availability of highly efficient computer and media technologies led to ever-faster exchanges of information and entertainment around the world. Taken together, these global transformations had a remarkable impact, both positive and negative, on many aspects of Western society.

European Union (EU) (1029)

The economic, cultural, and political alliance of 28 European nations. Global economic pressures encouraged the expansion and consolidation of the European Common Market, which in 1993 proudly rechristened itself the EU. It added the free movement of capital and services and eventually individuals across national borders to the existing free trade in goods. In addition, member states sought to create a monetary union in which all EU countries would share a single currency. Membership in the monetary union required states to meet strict financial criteria defined in the 1991 Maastricht Treaty.

Maastricht Treaty (1031)

The basis for the formation of the European Union, which set financial and cultural standards for potential member states and defined criteria for membership in the monetary union. Membership in the EU required states to meet the criteria defined in this 1991 treaty, which also set legal standards and anticipated the development of common policies on defense and foreign affairs. Western European elites and opinion makers generally supported the economic integration embodied in the treaty, and felt that membership requirements would combat the ongoing economic problems and viewed the establishment of a single currency as an irreversible historic step toward political unit, which would help Europe deal with the U.S as an equal. Dissidents did exist though, with some resenting the EU’s growing bureaucracy in Brussels, and others who did not like yielding power to “Eurocrats” who limited national soveriegnty and democratic control.

World Trade Organization (WTO) (1032)

A powerful supranational financial institution that sets trade and tariff agreements for over 150 member countries and so helps manage a large percentage of the world’s import-export policies. Like the IMF and World Bank, the WTO promotes neoliberal policies around the world. Initially founded to help rebuild war-torn Europe and they typically extend loans on the condition that recipient countries adopt neoliberal economic reforms, including budget reduction, deregulation, and privatization.

Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs) (1032)

Independent organizations with specific agendas, such as humanitarian aid or environmental protection, that conduct international programs and activities. The rise of the supranationals, which typically represent the shared interests of national governments, was paralleled by the emergence of a variety of NGOs. Some NGOs act as lobbyists on specific issues; others conduct international programs and activities. Exemplary NGOs include Doctors Without Borders, a charitable organization of physicians headquartered in France; Greenpeace, an international environmentalist group; and Oxfam, a British-based group dedicated to alleviating famine, disease, and poverty in the developing world. Though financed by donations from governments and private citizens, NGOs’ annual budgets can total hundreds of millions of dollars and their work can be quite extensive.

Diasporas (1039)

Enclaves of ethnic groups settle outside of their homelands. By 2015 immigration to Europe had profoundly changed the ethnic makeup of the continent, and foreign ethnic groups were making up larger amounts of the population than before. The new immigrants were divided into 2 main groups. A small percentage were highly trained specialists who could find work in the upper ranks of education, business, and high-tech industries. Engineers, from English-speaking India, were examples. Most immigrants, however, did not have access to high-quality education or language training, which limited their employment opportunities and made integration more difficult. They often lived in separate city districts marked by poor housing and crowded conditions, which set them apart from more established residents. Districts of London were home to tens of thousands of immigrants from the former colonies, and in Paris North Africans dominated some working-class banlieues (suburbs).

Multiculturalism (1039)

The mixing of ethnic styles in daily life and in cultural works such as film, music, art, and literature. A variety of new cultural forms, ranging from sports and cuisine to music, the fine arts, and film, brought together native and foreign traditions and transformed European lifestyles, a result of the arrival of more immigrants. Food was especially impacted. The new ethnic diversity associated with globalization has inspired numerous works in literature, film, and the fine arts. From rap to reggae to rai, multiculturalism has also had a profound impact on popular music. Rai travelled with Algerian immigrants to France, and now blends Arab and North Africa fok, U.S rap, and French and Spanish pop, with lyrics raging from love to critical descriptions of life in immigrant communities. This created rich interactions, but also xenophobia and questions over who should able to gain citizenship and if these people could, or should, assimilate.

War on Terror (1047)

American policy under President George W. Bush to fight global terrorism in all its forms. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, the peoples and governments of the world joined Americans in heartfelt solidarity. Over time, however, tensions between Europe and the U.S re-emerged and depended markedly, due to this policy. The main acts in the policy were a U.S-led war in Afghanistan, starting in 2001, and another in Iraq starting 2003, which both brought down dictatorial regimes. At the same time, they fomented anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world and failed to stop regional violence driven by ethnic and religious differences. The Iraq invasion caused some European leaders to question the rationale for and effectiveness of the war on terror. Victory would hardly end terrorism, so it was better fought through police and intelligence measures. Conduct of the war als violated international law and raised human rights concerns due to the pushing of harsh interrogation.

Muslim Brotherhood (1047)

Islamic social and political reform group founded in Egypt 1928 that called for national liberation from European control and a return to shari’a law (based on Muslim legal codes), and demanded land reform, extensive social welfare programs, and economic independence. Radical political Islam, a mixture of traditional religious beliefs and innovative social and political reform ideas, was at first a reaction against the foreign control and secularization represented by the mandate system established in the Middle East after WWI. The appeal of the Muslim Brotherhood crossed borders and class lines, and soon it had established chapters across the Middle East and North Africa, and a variety of other groups and leaders advocated similar ideas about the need for Islamic revival and national autonomy. The broad spectrum of Islamist ideas is difficult to summarize, but adherents tended to fall into two main groups: a moderate or centrist group that peacefully worked to reform society within existing institutions, and a smaller, more militant minority willing to use violence to achieve its goals.

Arab Spring (1048)

A series of popular revolts in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa that sought an end to authoritarian, often Western-supported regimes. In early 2011 the Arab Spring further destabilized the Middle East and North Africa. In Tunisia, a poor fruit vendor set himself on fire to protest official harassment. His death 18 days later unleashed a series of spontaneous mass protests that brought violence, chaos, and regime change; six weeks later, Tunisia’s authoritarian president fled the country, opening the way for reform. Massive popular demonstrations calling for more open democratic government and social tolerance broke out across the Middle East. In Egypt, demonstrates forced the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S-friendly leader who had ruled for 30 years. An armed uprising I LIbya backed by NATO brought down the government of Gaddafi that OCtober, and soon civil war dragged out in SYria.

Islamic State (1049)

A radical Islamist militia in control of substantial parts of central Syria and Iraq, where it applies an extremist version of shari’a law. As the popular movements inspired by the Arab Spring faltered, the emergence of it, often called ISIS or ISIL, suggested that events in the Middle East had spiraled out of control. It had grown out of al-Qaeda and the other insurgent groups fighting in Iraq and the Syrian civil war, by summer 2015 ISIS soldiers had taken control of substantial parts of central Syria and Iraq—including Mosul, Ramadi, and Fallujah, cities central to U.S combat missions in the Iraq war. Over 4m had lost their homes and 100ks fled north to find asylum. In the territories under their control, ISIS militants set up a terroristic government including persecution, sexual assault, executions, and more, all spread in propaganda campaigns.

Climate Change (1051)

Changes in long-standing weather patterns caused primarily by carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Even setting aside the question of the supply of fossil fuels, their use has led to serious environmental problems. Burning oil and coal releases massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, and the vast majority of climatologists agree that global warming is proceeding far more quickly than previously predicted and that some climate disruption is now unavoidable. Rising average temperatures already play havoc with familiar weather patterns, melting glaciers and polar ice packs, and drying up freshwater resources. Moreover, in the next 50 years rising sea levels may well flood low-lying coastal areas around the world. The EU has placed restrictions on CO2 emissions to try and help, but overfishing, toxic waste, and other pollution and destruction are also dangers to the world. Some damage came from the Soviet Union, who under dictatorial lead were not kind to the environment at all, but even in modern times action needs to be taken to preserve the planet and ecosystem. Actions taken include the United Nations Climate Change Conference and Kyoto Protocol.