Glossary Terms

Question 1

Active Measures

Answer 1

a KGB term of art referring to disinformation, forgeries, and covert political influence activities. These are operations that were designed to further Soviet foreign policy goals and to extend Soviet influence throughout the world. Active measures cause a target to act against its interests. Chief among these covert techniques was disinformation: leaking of false information and rumors to foreign media or planting forgeries in an attempt to deceive the public or the political elite in a given country or countries and supporting terrorists or insurgents. Active Measures also involve the use of agents of influence.

Question 2

Agent of Influence

Answer 2

an agent whose task is to influence policy by spreading disinformation or propaganda or through commercial operations, bribery, provocations, or other methods. An agent of influence may be a trusted contact who actively serves a foreign interest on some matters while seemingly retaining his integrity to his domestic community on others. He may be a witting and paid agent, or even an unwitting and unpaid agent.

Question 3

agrément

Answer 3

official approval by a government of a proposed ambassador from a foreign government. Approval or consent

Question 4

aide memoire

Answer 4

memorandum setting forth or summarizing the major points of a proposed discussion or agreement, used especially in diplomatic discussions.
essentially the same as meeting minutes.

Question 5

Alliance

Answer 5

a formal agreement between two or more parties made in order to advance a common goal or secure interests

Question 6

Anarchy

Answer 6

absence of the formal system of government. a complete state of lawlessness

Question 7

Anschluss

Answer 7

refers to the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938. It was the first major acquisition in the reconstitution of the German Empire according to Nazi designs. It followed the remilitarization of the Rhineland and preceded the invasion and annexation of the Czech Sudetenland the following year.

Question 8

ANZUS

Answer 8

defense treaty between Australia, New Zealand, and the United States signed on September 1, 1951 to protect the Pacific. In 1985, New Zealand refused to allow U.S. nuclear naval vessels port privileges and thus the US suspended its obligations toward New Zealand concerning ANZUS.

Question 9

Apartheid

Answer 9

social, political, and economic policy from 1948 to 1994 marked for its discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa.

Question 10

Appeasement

Answer 10

political strategy of accommodating the actions of a potentially hostile nation in the hope of avoiding war, often by granting concessions; is a policy of accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance; see also Munich Agreement

Question 11

Arbitrage

Answer 11

simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities, or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices

Question 12

Armistice

Answer 12

A suspension of hostilities between warring parties, truce; not necessarily permanent.

Question 13

Arms Control

Answer 13

restrictions upon the development, production, stockpiling, proliferation, and usage of weapons, especially weapons of mass destruction. Arms control is typically exercised through the use of diplomacy which seeks to impose such limitations upon consenting participants through international treaties and agreements, although it may also comprise efforts by a nation or group of nations to enforce limitations upon a non-consenting country.

Question 14

Asylum

Answer 14

form of protection granted by a country to individuals who have been persecuted or fear they will be persecuted on account of their race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Those granted asylum are legally considered “refugees” in the U.S. and are eligible to apply to adjust their status to that of a lawful permanent resident.

Question 15

Asymmetrical Warfare

Answer 15

is a war between belligerents whose relative military power differs significantly, or whose strategy or tactics differ significantly. Such struggles often involve unconventional warfare with the “weaker” combatants attempting to offset deficiencies in quantity or quality.

Question 16

Autarky

Answer 16

Economic self-sufficiency.

Question 17

Authoritarianism

Answer 17

political system, principle, or practice in which individual freedom is held as subordinate to the power or authority of the state, centered either in one person or a small group that is not constitutionally accountable to the people. Political freedom is especially subordinate; the regime may encourage passivity by permitting religious, cultural, or socio-economic freedom.

Question 18

Balance of Payments

Answer 18

measures the payments that flow between any individual country and all other countries. It is used to summarize all international economic transactions for that country during a specific time period, usually annually. The BOP is determined by the country’s exports and imports of goods, services, and financial capital, as well as financial transfers. It reflects all payments and liabilities to foreigners (debits) and all payments and obligations received from foreigners (credits). If all transactions are included, the payments and receipts of each country are, and must be, equal. The two elements of the BOP are the “current account” and the “capital account.”

Question 19

Balance of Power

Answer 19

distribution and opposition of forces among nations such that no single nation is strong enough to assert its will or dominate all the others. A balance of power exists when there is parity or stability between competing forces.

Question 20

Battlespace

Answer 20

is conventionally understood to be the unified arena of military conflict used to integrate and combine armed forces for the military theatre of operations, including air, information, land, sea and space to achieve military goals. It includes the environment, factors and conditions that must be understood to successfully apply combat power, protect the force, or complete the mission. In other types or dimensions of warfare, there are other battlespaces, including the economic, cyber, cultural, ideological, and moral battlespaces.

Question 21

BBC

Answer 21

British Broadcasting Corporation which provides international news, analysis and information. It is the world’s largest broadcaster and is controlled by the British government. It is a potent example of how a nation can promote international conditions conducive to its interests through soft power.

Question 22

Bipolarity

Answer 22

a distribution of power in which two states have the majority of economic, military, and cultural influence internationally or regionally. U,S. and Soviet strategic preponderance during the Cold War is an example of a bipolar distribution of power.

Question 23

Bolshevism

Answer 23

The doctrine and/or program developed by the Bolsheviks between 1903 and 1917 with a view to seizing state power and establishing a dictatorship of the proletariat; Soviet Communism. It was successively implemented during the Russian Revolution of October 1917 under the leadership of Vladimir I. Lenin.

Question 24

Boycott

Answer 24

To abstain from commercial relations with another entity as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion

Question 25

Bretton Woods System

Answer 25

The system of rules, institutions, and procedures to regulate the international monetary system established at the end of World War II. The planners at Bretton Woods established a system of fixed exchange rates and a gold standard along with major international financial institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (now one of five institutions in the World Bank Group) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The chief features of the Bretton Woods system were an obligation for each country to adopt a monetary policy that maintained the exchange rate of its currency within a fixed value—plus or minus one percent—in terms of gold; and the ability of the IMF to bridge temporary imbalances of payments. In the face of increasing strain, the system collapsed in 1971, following the United States’ suspension of convertibility from dollars to gold.

Question 26

Buffer Zone

Answer 26

A neutral zone between two hostile nations. (the DMZ between N.Korea and S.Korea).

Question 27

C2,C3I,C4I

Answer 27

These are security network acronyms meaning: Command and Control; Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence; and Command, Control, Communications, Computers, and Intelligence

Question 28

Caliphate

Answer 28

The Islamic system of government in which a ruler (the Caliph, the successor to the Prophet Mohammed) presides over the legal, administrative, military and economic affairs of the umma (Muslim community) within a given territory. The caliphate system is designed to control all aspects of life through Sharia law and the observance of the Quran and the Hadith.

Question 29

capital account (balance of payments)

Answer 29

A capital account shows the net change in physical or financial asset ownership for a nation and, together with the current account, constitutes a nation’s balance of payments. It tracks the movement of funds for investments and loans in and out of a country. The capital account is the net result of public and private international investment flowing in and out of a country. This includes foreign direct investment, plus changes in holdings of stocks, bonds, loans, bank accounts, and currencies.

Question 30

cartel

Answer 30

A group of formally independent producers whose goal is to work together to fix prices, to limit supply, and to limit competition. Cartels are prohibited by antitrust laws in most countries and are considered to be a group monopoly. OPEC is an example.

Question 31

casus belli

Answer 31

Latin expression for an event, action, or provocation that is so grave that it justifies – or allegedly justifies war. It literally refers to a “case for war.”

Question 32

caudillo

Answer 32

Spanish expression for a military leader at the head of an authoritarian state.

Question 33

chargé d’ affaires

Answer 33

A diplomatic representative accredited by the government of one state to the minister of foreign affairs of another when it is either impossible to send one of a higher rank or a country has removed its ambassador due to diplomatic tensions. Usually, the “chargé” is a temporary substitute for an ambassador or minister plenipotentiary.

Question 34

choke point

Answer 34

This is a geographical feature on land, such as a valley or defile, or at sea, such as a strait, through which an armed force is forced to pass in order to reach its objective, greatly decreasing its combat power. A choke point would allow a numerically inferior defending force successfully to block a larger opponent because the attacker would not be able to bring his superior numbers to bear. Naval choke points include, the Panama Canal, Suez Canal, Gibraltar, Bosporus, Strait of Hormuz, English Channel, and Strait of Malacca.

Question 35

coalition warfare

Answer 35

This term refers to the use of alliances in war and it highlights the problem of the coordination of doctrine, weapons interoperability, language, and communications among various allied states.