OTHER TERMS (MIDTERM #2)

Question 1

Arms Race

Answer 1

A competition between nations for superiority in the development and accumulation of weapons, especially between the U.S. and the former USSR during the Cold War

Question 2

Balance of Terror

Answer 2

A situation in which two or more countries use the threat of nuclear weapons to deter conflicts

Question 3

Baruch Plan

Answer 3

Proposed that the United States reduce its atomic arsenal by carefully defined stages linked to the degree of international agreement on control

Question 4

Berlin Blockade

Answer 4

The first physical confrontation of the Cold War, taking place in 1948–1949, in which Stalin blocked the land routes into Berlin

Question 5

Containment

Answer 5

A geopolitical strategic foreign policy pursued by the United States during the Cold War to prevent the spread of communism after the end of World War II

Question 6

Decolonization

Answer 6

Process by which colonies become independent of the colonizing country

Question 7

Detente

Answer 7

A period of general easing of geopolitical tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War

Question 8

Domino Theory

Answer 8

When one nation falls to communism the impact is such as to weaken the resistance of other countries and facilitate, if not cause, their fall to communism

Question 9

Escalation Dominance

Answer 9

Ability to escalate a conflict in ways. that will be disadvantageous or costly. to the adversary

Question 10

Extended Deterrence

Answer 10

A commitment to deter and, if necessary, to respond across the spectrum of potential nuclear and non-nuclear scenarios in defense of allies and partners

Question 11

Freedom Fighters

Answer 11

A person who takes part in an armed rebellion against the constituted authority

Question 12

First-Strike Capability

Answer 12

Attack on an enemy’s nuclear arsenal that effectively prevents retaliation against the attacker

Question 13

Historical Revisionism

Answer 13

Any reinterpretation of recorded history, but whether this practice is beneficial, harmful, or somewhere in between is hotly contested

Question 14

Iron Curtain

Answer 14

A metaphor for the extreme political and ideological division that separated Western Europe from the Soviet Union and its satellite states in the east.

Question 15

Long Telegram

Answer 15

It gave rise to the policy of containment—keeping communism within its present territory through the use of diplomatic, economic, and military actions

Question 16

Marshall Plan

Answer 16

The Western plan to rebuild Germany and the rest of Europe after World War II

Question 17

Massive Retaliation

Answer 17

A military doctrine and nuclear strategy in which a state commits itself to retaliate in much greater force in the event of an attack

Question 18

Maximum Deterrence

Answer 18

A strategy that relies on many nuclear weapons to deter both conventional and limited nuclear attacks

Question 19

Minimum Deterrence

Answer 19

A strategy of deterrence that relies on a few nuclear weapons to retaliate and inflict unacceptable damage on the adversary

Question 20

Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD)

Answer 20

The nuclear deterrence strategy that called for the dominance of offensive over defensive weapons

Question 21

Mutually Assured Protection (MAP)

Answer 21

The nuclear strategy, proposed by Reagan, to build up defensive systems and reduce offensive weapons

Question 22

New Thinking

Answer 22

Its major elements were de-ideologization of international politics, abandoning the concept of class struggle, priority of universal human interests over the interests of any class, increasing interdependence of the world, and mutual security based on political rather than military instruments

Question 23

Non-aligned Movement

Answer 23

Goals were cooperation, neutrality , and self determination. During the Cold War, NAM worked to end colonialism and attempted for countries to not get involved on either side in the Cold War

Question 24

North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)

Answer 24

A military alliance originally established in 1949 to create a counterweight to Soviet armies stationed in central and eastern Europe after World War II. When the Cold War ended, NATO was reconceived as a “cooperative-security” organization

Question 25

Nuclear Triad

Answer 25

A three-sided military-force structure consisting of land-launched nuclear missiles, nuclear-missile-armed submarines, and strategic aircraft with nuclear bombs and missiles

Question 26

Potsdam Conference

Answer 26

The meeting among wartime allies in July 1945 that produced no agreement on the unification of Germany and other issues

Question 27

Rollback

Answer 27

The strategy of forcing a change in the major policies of a state, usually by replacing its ruling regime

Question 28

Second-Strike Capability

Answer 28

The ability, after being struck by a nuclear attack, to strike back with nuclear weapons and cause massive damage to the enemy

Question 29

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)

Answer 29

The space-based antimissile systems that formed the core of Reagan’s program to enhance U.S. missile defenses

Question 30

Truman Doctrine

Answer 30

The United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian forces

Question 31

Warsaw Pact

Answer 31

A collective defense treaty established by the Soviet Union and seven other Soviet satellite states in Central and Eastern Europe: Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland and Romania

Question 32

Yalta Conference

Answer 32

A wartime conference held in February 1945 where the United States, the Soviet Union, and Great Britain agreed on the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and postwar occupation of Europe, including a Soviet sphere of influence in eastern Europe

Question 33

Extended Deterrence

Answer 33

A strategy of deterrence in which one country uses nuclear weapons to deter an attack on the territory of an allied country

Question 34

Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START)

Answer 34

U.S.–Soviet talks held in the 1990s to reduce offensive weapons systems

Question 35

Spheres of Influence

Answer 35

Areas of contested territory divided up and dominated by great powers, which agree not to interfere in one another’s areas