Post Cold War Issues and Conflicts

Question 1

On September 11, 2001, the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes.

What were their targets?

Answer 1

Two planes were to fly directly into the World Trade Center buildings in downtown Manhattan. Both attacks were successful, and the Twin Towers fell that morning.

Two other planes were directed at the Pentagon and the White House. While the Pentagon attack was a success, passengers on the fourth plane, Flight 93, fought back and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania.

9-11 marked the deadliest of attacks by Islamist fundamentalists who had long been angry with the United States. Al-Qaeda fighters are global jihadists and view Western influence on the Muslim community to be a threat.

Question 2

In October 2001, President Bush deployed U.S. forces to invade which country?

Answer 2

Bush authorized the invasion of Afghanistan, which had provided the training ground for the 9-11 terrorists. Many of the NATO nations contributed troops and material support to the campaign.

Question 3

Who was the African National Congress’ most famous leader?

Answer 3

The African National Congress, a South African political party, was led by Nelson Mandela. Mandela opposed apartheid and was jailed for his beliefs from 1964 to 1990. Under intense diplomatic pressure, the South African government freed Mandela in 1990, and in 1994 apartheid ended following Mandela’s election as South Africa’s president.

Question 4

Define

Apartheid

Answer 4

Apartheid was a system of racial segregation in South Africa from 1948-1991. Apartheid banned interracial marriages and set 80% of the land aside for the white minority. Non-White Africans were restricted from entering specific areas during specific times and were forced to carry around passbook papers.

Question 5

Identify some of the key resistance leaders who fought against Apartheid.

Answer 5

Nelson Mandela who formed the African National Congress, Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk were the three major resistance leaders who fought against Apartheid.

Question 6

Explain what occurred during the Arab Spring movement?

Answer 6

In the Spring of 2011, several Middle Eastern nations engaged in pro-democratic protests and violent uprisings in response to oppressive regimes that limited civil liberties. These uprising had varying levels of success, but overall encourage the spread of democratic reform.

Question 7

What religious figure came to power in Iran in 1979?

Answer 7

In 1979, Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in Iran after Shah Pahlavi was overthrown. Khomeini established a theocracy, strictly governed by the rules of Islam and opposed to the United States, whom Khomeini termed “The Great Satan.”

At the time of Khomeini’s takeover, the United States’ embassy in Tehran was seized, and Americans were held hostage from 1979 until 1981.

Question 8

Explain the significance of what occurred at the Camp David Accords.

Answer 8

On September 17, 1978, Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty which marked the first treaty between Israel and any neighboring Arab nation.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter played a large role in facilitating the treaty. The talks took place at the U.S. Presidential retreat at Camp David in Maryland.

Question 9

Explain the political objectives of the Contras.

Answer 9

The Contras were Nicaraguan rebel guerilla fighters supported by the United States and U.S. President Ronald Reagan. They were anti-communist forces who opposed the Sandinista government that ruled from 1979-1990.

Question 10

Define

Dalai Lama

Answer 10

The spiritual leader of Buddism in Tibet. Prior to the Chinese Communist Revolution, the Dalai Lama was also the spiritual ruler of Tibet. There have been 14 Dalai Lamas, the current one being Tenzin Gyatso.

Question 11

Explain what occurred in Darfur in the 21st Century.

Answer 11

Mass genocide occurred in Darfur in the 21st Century. It is estimated that more than a million children from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes were tortured and killed as a result of a civil war that has raged in Sudan’s Western Darfur Region.

Question 12

The Dayton Accords, signed in 1995, resolved what conflict?

Answer 12

The Dayton Accords put an end to the three-and-a-half-year-long war in Bosnia, which arose out of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia following Communism’s collapse in Europe.

President Clinton was instrumental in organizing the Accords and serving as mediator. NATO had previously conducted bombing raids to halt the conflict.

Question 13

How did British and French decolonization in Sub-Saharan Africa differ from Belgian and Portuguese decolonization?

Answer 13

Although there were exceptions (e.g. Rhodesia and South Africa), British and French decolonization in Sub-Saharan Africa went relatively smoothly, with a well-planned decolonization movement aimed at minimizing conflict.

The Portuguese fought hard to maintain their colonies and were only removed after vicious, long-running conflicts. Belgian decolonization was poorly executed. After their withdrawal from Rwanda (1962) and the Congo (1960), the region descended into chaos along tribal lines that led to United Nations intervention.

Question 14

What political trend took place in Latin America during the 1980s?

Answer 14

During the 1980s, economic improvements and the end of the Cold War led to increased democratization in Latin America.

Argentina had a free election in 1989, In Mexico, the PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) loosened power in 1988, eventually leading to free elections.

Question 15

_____ was the first Arab state to recognize Israel.

Answer 15

Egypt

In a deal brokered by President Jimmy Carter, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin returned the Sinai Peninsula to Egypt’s Anwar Sadat in exchange for diplomatic recognition.

During the 1980s, several other Arab states followed suit. Nevertheless, a low-level conflict has continued to simmer in the region.

Question 16

Define

Ethnic Cleansing

Answer 16

The systematic murder of a specific group of people based on their ethnic or religious makeup. Ethnic cleansing is another term for genocide.

Question 17

In 2002, the nations of the European Union adopted the _____ as a form of common currency.

Answer 17

Euro

The European Union, which also consists of some cooperative military and political organizations, adopted the euro in part to facilitate international trade among the nations of Western Europe. In recent years, several former Communist countries have joined the organization.

Question 18

Define

European Union

Answer 18

An organization of 28 countries, mainly in Europe, that have similar political and economic goals. The EU was created to reduce conflict and bloodshed between neighboring European nations.

Question 19

Define

Green Revolution

Answer 19

Often referred to as the third agricultural revolution, the Green Revolution occurred in the 1950s and 60s and was marked by the technological innovation predominantly in the developing parts of the world. Mexico and India benefited tremendously from the early movement.

Question 20

Which disease emerged in Africa in the 1980s and has continued to decimate the continent?

Answer 20

In the 1980s, HIV/AIDS emerged in Africa and has caused millions of deaths.

Question 21

Define

Human Trafficking

Answer 21

A form of modern-day slavery in which individuals are captured against their will through force or coercion and transported for the purpose of forced labor or commercial sexual acts.

Question 22

Why did India and Pakistan split into two separate countries following Britain’s departure?

Answer 22

When the British left India in 1947, the former colony split along religious lines, with Pakistan being Muslim and India being Hindu.

Gandhi was assassinated in 1947 by a Hindu extremist who opposed his plan for peaceful coexistence between the two states. His successor, Jawaharlal Nehru, sought to emphasize secularism in India’s government.

Tensions between India and Pakistan have remained high since independence.

Question 23

Identify the objective of the IRA.

Answer 23

The Irish Republican Army is a paramilitary organization that wants to end British rule in Northern Ireland and reunify the nation. They are known for violent terrorist tactics that are designed to convince citizens that the British are unable to provide security for their people.

Question 24

Define

Islamic Fundamentalism

Answer 24

A movement in the Middle East that strives to implement strict Islamic law and rejects Western secular rules, influence, culture, and ideas.

Question 25

Explain Jomo Kenyatta’s role in Kenyan independence.

Answer 25

Kenyata fought against British rule as an anti-colonial activist. Kenyata was the Prime Minister of Kenya from 1963-1964 and then was elected as the first President from 1694 until his death in 1978.

Question 26

Define

Khmer Rouge

Answer 26

The Khmer Rouge was the name given to the Communist party followers in Cambodia. They are notoriously known for the horrific acts of genocide that occurred throughout Cambodia on behalf of their leader Pol Pot.

The Khmer Rouge murdered millions of individuals at various “killing fields” between 1975-1979 who were considered enemies of the State.

Question 27

What nations were known as the “Little Tigers”?

Answer 27

South Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore were known as the “Little Tigers,” capitalist countries with strong economies that developed in the 1960s and 1970s. The “Great Tiger” was Japan, which became one of the world’s leading economies after World War II.

Question 28

By 1962, how many Middle Eastern and North African states were controlled by the former colonial powers?

Answer 28

None

Driven by decolonization during the 1950s and 1960s, Egypt and North Africa had become independent. Independence was sometimes achieved peacefully (e.g. Jordan) and sometimes with a great degree of violence. France waged a protracted war in Algeria between 1954 to 1962.

Question 29

Define

NAFTA

Answer 29

North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA encouraged trade among the USA, Mexico, and Canada by reducing tariffs. The overall objective was to increase the economic power of North America geographically.

Question 30

Who was Colonel Gamal Nasser?

Answer 30

Nasser was an Egyptian leader who dominated Egypt upon its independence in the early 1950s. Dedicated to Arab Nationalism, Nasser took control of the Suez Canal and constructed the Aswan High Dam. Nasser also led Egypt in a series of conflicts with Israel.

Question 31

During the 1960s and 1970s, India was widely recognized as the leader of which group of nations?

Answer 31

India was widely recognized as the leader of the non-aligned nations, which were allied neither to the United States nor the Soviet Union.

Non-alignment allowed India and nations such as Indonesia to chart an independent course that preserved good relations with both superpowers.

Question 32

What does OPEC stand for?

Answer 32

OPEC stands for the “Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.” OPEC was founded in 1960 and is predominantly made up of the states of the Middle East.

Oil has been a continual source of conflict in the Middle East. Many Middle Eastern states during the Cold War period were dictatorships, funded primarily from oil export revenues.

Question 33

What was Operation Uphold Democracy?

Answer 33

In 1994, a military coup overthrew Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 940, and U.S. troops were dispatched to Haiti as part of Operation Uphold Democracy to restore the democratically elected Aristide to power.

Question 34

In 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Army invaded Kuwait.

How did the U.S. respond?

Answer 34

The Iraqi Army was the world’s fourth largest army. With the full support of the United Nations, the U.S. assembled 35 allies into a military force based in the Arabian Peninsula.

After warning the Iraqis to withdraw, the U.S. led a massive ground war, dubbed Desert Storm, which destroyed the Iraqi military in less than 100 hours.

Question 35

The United States granted independence to the _____ in 1946.

Answer 35

Philippines

The United States had seized the Philippines from Spain in 1898 and promised the country independence during the 1930s.

The intervention of World War II and the Japanese occupation of the islands delayed the independence plan, but in 1946 the Philippines was granted independence.

Question 36

What organization emerged to contest the establishment of the state of Israel?

Answer 36

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), led by Yasser Arafat, emerged to challenge the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state.

In 1948, the United Nations had established Israel with the goal of a joint Palestinian/Jewish state. The Palestinians rejected the United Nations’ plan and allied with several Arab states that launched attacks against Israel. Israel survived the onslaught, and the Palestinians were displaced.

In 1964, the PLO was established to provide some semblance of leadership to the Palestinians.

Question 37

Rwandan Genocide

Answer 37

The 1994 Hutu led effort to eliminate the Tutsi minority in Rwanda. 800,000 people were murdered in just 100 days in one of the worst acts of Genocide since the 2nd World War.

Question 38

How did Rhodesian and South African decolonization differ from the experience of other Sub-Saharan British colonies?

Answer 38

In both Rhodesia and South Africa, whites seized power and declared independence from Britain. Rhodesia became Zimbabwe once native control was established in 1980.

In South Africa, a policy of extreme segregation known as apartheid kept the country separate along racial lines.

Question 39

Based in New York City, the _____ _____ provides an international forum for the world’s nations.

Answer 39

United Nations

The United Nations has many functions such as the preservation of cultural heritage but exists primarily to keep the peace between the world’s nations.

Question 40

Define

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Answer 40

Signed in 1948 by the United Nations, it was a historic document that was unanimously approved by United Nations members calling for general global protection of human rights and civil liberties. It would go on to later influence the International Bill of Human Rights which was signed in 1976.

Question 41

What are WMDs?

Answer 41

WMD stands for weapons of mass destruction. Saddam Hussein, the president of Iraq, had publicly stated that he possessed WMDs, which the United States used to justify a 2003 attack on the country without the United Nation’s backing.

Question 42

By marrying hypertext to the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee gave birth to the ____ ____ _____ in 1989.

Answer 42

World Wide Web

(the www preceding an Internet address)

The first web page was created in 1991. By 1995, the entire World Wide Web barely exceeded 3.5 gigabytes in space, making the task of the earliest search engines, such as WebCrawler, straightforward.

Question 43

What does “WTO” stand for?

Answer 43

WTO stands for the World Trade Organization. Over 100 of the world’s countries belong to the World Trade Organization, which is dedicated to increasing economic integration and facilitating international trade.