Nation-State System and International Organizations

Vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts of the nation-state system, its historical emergence, challenges like colonialism and neo-colonialism, and the role of international organizations.

State

An internationally recognized, politically organized, populated, geographical area that possesses sovereignty.

Nation

Refers to a shared cultural or ethnic identity rather than to a legally recognized geographic territory.

Nation-state

A specific kind of state that provides a sovereign territory for a particular cultural/ethnic nation where people share a common language, culture, and values.

Secular

Not religious; organized around national differences rather than spiritual unity.

Sovereignty

The principle that suggests a political entity has the sole authority to make decisions about policy, procedure, and institutions within a given geographic territory.

Holy Roman Empire

An empire that included almost all of central Europe for more than 900 years, ruled by an emperor crowned by the Pope.

Bubonic plague / Black Death

A pandemic occurring around the 1340s caused by a bacterium that killed one-quarter to one-third of Europeans and caused radical social upheavals.

Temporal affairs

Refers to secular, rather than sacred or religious, matters.

Indulgence

Spiritual pardons granted by religious authorities for profit to remove temporal punishment for sin.

Protestant Reformation

A sixteenth-century schism within the Catholic Church led by Martin Luther's attempt to reform doctrines and practices.

Thirty Years War

A religious and political conflict from 1618 to 1648 that devastated Europe and served as the bloodiest war in European history prior to WWII.

Peace of Westphalia

Two treaties signed in 1648 that ended the Thirty Years War and established the beginning of the modern nation-state system.

Westphalian system

The current political structure of the sovereignty of the nation-state.

Colonialism

One territorial sovereign exerting control over another land by usurping control from local leaders, thereby destroying indigenous culture, economies, and political structures.

Encomienda system

A forced labor system introduced by the Spanish during the conquest of the Americas that effectively made local populations landless slaves.

Neo-colonialism

The involvement of more powerful states in the domestic affairs of less powerful ones, often seen during the Cold War.

Cold War

The ideological stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1945 to 1989.

Ethno-nationalism

Characterized by an extreme attachment to ethnicity and the belief that only ancestry gives one the right to belong to a particular group.

Migrants

People who have left their homes in order to settle in another country or city.

International governmental organization (IGO)

Organizations made up of three or more nation-states that join for specific purposes such as promoting peace, enhancing trade, and encouraging cooperation.

Non-governmental organization (NGO)

A legally constructed organization made up of private individuals that functions independently of nation-states.

Multinational corporation (MNC)

A private company or enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country.

Apartheid

A system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948 to 1994 that divided citizens into Blacks, Coloureds, Whites, and Indians.

Mercenary

A private citizen who is paid by a political entity to provide armed support.

Sanctions

Typically refers to economic restrictions, or embargos, placed on a nation-state.

Failed state

A state that has lost physical control of its territory, the monopoly on the legitimate use of force, and the ability to provide reasonable public services.

Marginal state

States that are the most politically unstable, poorest, and least successful at meeting the basic needs of their people.

Treaty

A legally binding agreement between two or more states, sovereigns, or international organizations.

Organs

Agencies within organizations that perform specific functions, such as deliberative, executive, or administrative duties.

Fourteen Points

A 1918 speech by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson that became the framework for the peace treaty ending World War I.

League of Nations

Established in 1920 to provide a forum for conflict dispute resolution and prevent war, though the US never joined.

Treaty of Versailles

The treaty that ended World War I and demanded that Germany take full responsibility and make reparations.

International Labour Organization (ILO)

A specialized agency of the UN founded in 1919 to promote decent working conditions across the globe.