Topic 13: The Post-Cold War World

Globalization

Actions or processes that involve the entire world and result in making something worldwide in scope.

Confederation

A joining of several groups for a common purpose.

European Union (EU)

An economic association established in 1957 by a number of Western European countries to promote free trade among its members

NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

An alliance made to defend one another if they were attacked by any other country; US, England, France, Canada, Western European countries

Reunification of Germany (1990)

Process in which communist East Germany was rejoined with democratic West Germany and Berlin was reunited into a single city

Oligarch

One of several people who rule a country or empire together, sharing the power

Ethnic Cleansing

Process in which more powerful ethnic group forcibly removes a less powerful one in order to create an ethnically homogeneous region

Autonomous

Self-governing; independent

Postmodernism

Post-World War II intellectual movement and cultural attitude focusing on cultural pluralism and release from the confines and ideology of Western high culture.

Cultural Imperialism

The dominance of one culture over another.

One Child Policy

A program established by the Chinese government in 1979 to slow population growth in China.

Indigenous

Native to a certain area

Arab Spring

A revolutionary wave of protests and demonstrations overtaking dictators in the Middle East (2011)