| anarchical political system | An anarchical system is one in which there is no central authority to make rules, to enforce
rules, or to resolve disputes about the actors in the political
system. Many people believe that a system without central
authority is inevitably either one of chaos or one in
which the powerful prey on the weak. There is, however,
an anarchist political philosophy that contends that the natural
tendency of people to cooperate has been corrupted
by artificial political, economic, or social institutions. Therefore,
anarchists believe that the end of these institutions will
lead to a cooperative society. Marxism, insofar as it foresees
the collapse of the state once capitalism is destroyed
and workers live in proletariat harmony, has elements of
anarchism.
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| appeasement policy | A policy advocated by the British and
French toward the Germans following World War I. The
hope was to maintain peace by allowing Hitler to annex the
Sudentenland part of Czechoslovakia.
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| asymmetrical warfare | A strategy by which a national military
or other armed force, including a terrorist organization,
that is relatively small and lightly equipped attacks a militarily
stronger opponent by using unconventional means, such
as terrorism, or with limited unconventional weapons, such
as nuclear explosives and material, biological agents, or chemical
agents.
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| balance of power | A concept that describes the degree of
equilibrium (balance) or disequilibrium (imbalance) of power
in the global or regional system.
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| bipolar system | A type of international system with two
roughly equal actors or coalitions of actors that divide the
international system into two poles.
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| cold war | The confrontation that emerged following World
War II between the bipolar superpowers, the Soviet Union
and the United States. Although no direct conflict took place
between these countries, it was an era of great tensions and
global division.
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| containment doctrine | U.S. policy that sought to contain
communism, during the cold war.
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| détente | A cold war policy involving the United States, the
Soviet Union, and China that sought to open relations
among the countries and ease tensions.
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| East-West Axis | A term used to describe the ideological division between hemispheres following World War II. The East was associated with communism, while the West was associated with democracy.
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| economic interdependence | The close interrelationship and mutual
dependence of two or more domestic economies on each
other.
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| economically developed countries (EDCs) | Industrialized
countries mainly found in the Northern Hemisphere.
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| ethnonational groups | Ethnic groups in which a significant
percentage of members favor national self-determination
and the establishment of a nation-state dominated by the
group.
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| Eurowhites | A term to distinguish the whites of Europe and
of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States, and
other countries whose cultures were founded on or converted
to European culture from other races and ethnic
groups, including Caucasian peoples in Latin America, the
Middle East, South Asia, and elsewhere.
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| feudal system | Medieval political system of smaller units,
such as principalities, dukedoms, and baronies, ruled by
minor royalty.
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| gross national product (GNP) | A measure of the sum of
all goods and services produced by a country’s nationals,
whether they are in the country or abroad.
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| Holy Roman Empire | The domination and unification of a
political territory in Western and Central Europe that lasted
from its inception with Charlemagne in 800 to the renunciation
of the imperial title by Francis II in 1806.
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| imperialism | A term synonymous with colonization, meaning
domination by Northern Eurowhites over Southern
nonwhites as a means to tap resources to further their own
development.
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| industrial revolution | The development of mechanical and
industrial production of goods that began in Great Britain
in the mid-1700s and then spread through Europe and
North America.
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| international system | An abstract concept that encompasses
global actors, the interactions (especially patterns of interaction)
among those actors, and the factors that cause those
interactions. The international system is largest of a vast
number of overlapping political systems that extend downward
in size to micropolitical systems at the local level. See
also system-level analysis.
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| less developed countries (LDCs) | Those countries in
the poorest of economic circumstances. In this book, this
includes those countries with a per capita GNP of less than
$400 in 1985 dollars.
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| limited unipolar system | A configuration of the international
system in which there is one power center that plays
something less than a fully dominant role because of a range
of external and/or internal restraints on its power.
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| McWorld | - This concept describes the merging of states into
an integrated world. Benjamin Barber coined this term to
describe how states are becoming more globalized, especially
with the growth of economic interdependence.
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| multipolar system | A world political system in which power
is primarily held by four or more international actors.
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| Munich Conference | A meeting between France, Germany,
Great Britain, and Italy in 1938, during which France and
Great Britain, unwilling to confront Hitler, acquiesced with
Germany’s decision to annex the Sudetenland (part of
Czechoslovakia). This appeasement of Germany became
synonymous with a lack of political will.
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| newly industrializing countries (NICs) | Less developed
countries whose economies and whose trade now include
significant amounts of manufactured products. As a result,
these countries have a per capita GDP significantly higher
than the average per capita GDP for less developed countries.
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| North | The economically developed countries (EDCs) including
those of Western Europe, the United States and Canada in North
America, Japan in Asia, and Australia and New Zealand in Oceania.
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| North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) | An alliance
of 19 member-countries, established in 1949 by Canada, the
United States, and most of the countries of Western Europe,
to defend its members from outside, presumably Soviet-led,
attack. In the era after the cold war, NATO has begun to
admit members from Eastern Europe and has also expanded
its mission to include peacekeeping.
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| popular sovereignty | A political doctrine that holds that
sovereign political authority resides with the citizens of a
state. According to this doctrine, the citizenry grant a certain
amount of authority to the state, its government, and,
especially, its specific political leaders (such as monarchs,
presidents, and prime ministers), but do not surrender ultimate
sovereignty.
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| power poles | Actors in the international system that have
enough military, economic, and/or diplomatic strength to
often have an important role in determining the rules and
operation of the system. Power poles, or simply poles, have
generally been either (1) a single country or empire or (2) a
group of countries that constitute an alliance or bloc.
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| Protestant Reformation | The religious movement initiated
by Martin Luther in Germany in 1517 that rejected the
Catholic Church as the necessary intermediary between
people and God.
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| realpolitik | Operating according to the belief that politics is
based on the pursuit, possession, and application of power.
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| Renaissance | A period of cultural and intellectual rebirth and
reform following the Dark Ages from approximately 1350
to 1650.
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| South | The economically less developed countries (LDCs),
primarily located in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
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| sovereignty | The most essential characteristic of an international
state. The term strongly implies political independence
from any higher authority and also suggests at least
theoretical equality.
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| state | A political actor that has sovereignty and a number of
characteristics, including territory, population, organization,
and recognition.
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| superpower | A term used to describe the leader of a system
pole in a bipolar system. During the cold war, the Soviet
Union and the United States were each leaders of a bipolar
system pole.
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| sustainable development | The ability to continue to improve
the quality of life of those in the industrialized countries
and, particularly, those in the less developed countries,
while simultaneously protecting the Earth’s biosphere.
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| Third World | A term once commonly used to designate the
countries of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and elsewhere that
were economically less developed. The phrase is attributed
to French analyst Alfred Sauvy, who in 1952 used tiers monde
to describe neutral countries in the cold war. By inference,
the U.S.-led Western bloc and the Soviet-led Eastern bloc
were the other two worlds. But since most of the neutral
countries were also relatively poor, the phrase had a double
meaning. Sauvy used the older tiers, instead of the more
modern troisiΦme, to allude to the pre-Revolutionary (1789)
third estate (tiers Θtat), that is, the underprivileged class, the
commoners. The nobility and the clergy were the first and
second estates. Based on this second meaning, Third World
came most commonly to designate the less developed countries
of the world, whatever their political orientation. The phrase is
less often used since the end of the cold war, although some
analysts continue to employ it to designate the less developed countries.
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| Treaty of Westphalia | The treaty that ended the Thirty Years’
War (1618û1648). The treaty signals the birth of the modern
state system and the end of the theoretical subordination of
the monarchies of Europe, especially those that had adopted
Protestantism, to the Roman Catholic Church and the Holy
Roman Empire. While the date of 1648 marked an important
change, the state as a sovereign entity had begun to
emerge earlier and continues to evolve.
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| tribalism | A term used by scholar Benjamin Barber to describe
the internal pressure on countries that can lead to their
fragmentation and even to their collapse.
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| weapons of mass destruction | Generally deemed
to be nuclear weapons with a tremendous capability to destroy
a population and the planet, but also includes some exceptionally
devastating conventional arms, such as fuel-air
explosives, as well as biological and chemical weapons.
Weapons of mass destruction warfare refers to the application
of force between countries using biological, chemical,
and nuclear weapons.
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| West | Historically, Europe and those countries and regions
whose cultures were founded on or converted to European
culture. Such countries would include Australia, Canada,
New Zealand, and the United States. The majority of the
populations in these countries are also “white,” in the European,
not the larger Caucasian, sense. After World War II,
the term West took on two somewhat different but related
meanings. One referred to the countries allied with the
United States and opposed to the Soviet Union and its allies,
called the East. The West also came to mean the industrial
democracies, including Japan. See also Eurowhites.
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| Westernization of the international system | A number of factors,
including scientific and technological advances, contributed to the
domination of the West over the international system that was
essentially created by the Treaty of Westphalia (1648).
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