CH 30 Flashcards
(39 cards)
Perestroika
a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated with CPSU general secretary Mikhail Gorbachev and his glasnost (meaning “openness”) policy reform.
Glasnost
Glasnost was taken to mean increased openness and transparency in government institutions and activities in the Soviet Union (USSR). Glasnost reflected a commitment of the Gorbachev administration to allowing Soviet citizens to discuss publicly the problems of their system and potential solutions.
Vladimir Putin
a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who is the president of Russia, a position he has filled since 2012, and previously from 2000 until 2008.
Solidarity
a Polish non-governmental trade union, was founded on August 14, 1980, at the Lenin Shipyards (now Gdańsk Shipyards) by Lech Wałęsa and others. In the early 1980s, it became the first independent labor union in a Soviet-bloc country.
Yugoslav Civil War
a series of separate but related ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and insurgencies fought in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 2001, leading up to and resulting from the breakup of the Yugoslav federation in 1992.
Bosnian War/Siege of Sarajevo
a prolonged blockade of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Bosnian War.
ethnic cleansing
the attempt to create ethnically homogeneous geographic areas through the deportation or forcible displacement of persons belonging to particular ethnic groups.
Kosovo War
ethnic Albanians fought ethnic Serbs and the government of Yugoslavia in Kosovo. The conflict gained widespread international attention and was resolved with the intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
German Reunification
the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic (GDR; German: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, DDR) became part of the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, BRD) to form the reunited nation of Germany.
European Union
international organization comprising 27 European countries and governing common economic, social, and security policies. Originally confined to western Europe, the EU undertook a robust expansion into central and eastern Europe in the early 21st century.
Persian Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War was a war fought between Iraq and a United States-led coalition of United Nations’ forces. The war was a result of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and officially ended after Iraq agreed to a ceasefire in April 1991.
Red Army Faction
a terrorist organization that is known to have targeted various government and business entities in Germany in the late 1970s and 1980s. Throughout this period, the group reportedly carried out numerous terrorist activities in Germany.
Pan American 103
On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 took off from Heathrow Airport in London bound for New York City. Among the 259 passengers and crew were 190 Americans. Explodes in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members
Munich Olympics Terror Attacks
The Munich massacre was an attack during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, who took nine members of the Israeli Olympic team hostage, after killing two more.
Irish Republican Army
The Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reunification and bring about an independent, socialist republic encompassing all of Ireland.
September 11, 2001 Attack
The September 11 attacks were a series of airline hijackings and suicide attacks committed in 2001 by 19 terrorists associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil; nearly 3,000 people were killed.
al-Qaeda
means ‘The Base’, and refers to the training camps in Afghanistan where young Muslim men had been training as part of the Mujahideen forces. Al Qaeda wanted to see the removal of any foreign power from Muslim lands (including countries such as Saudi Arabia).
ISIL
also known as ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), is a Sunni jihadist group with a particularly violent ideology that calls itself a caliphate and claims religious authority over all Muslims. It was inspired by al Qaida but later publicly expelled from it.
Migration Crisis
Among them are nearly 26 million refugees, around half of whom are under the age of 18. We are dealing with the highest number of forcibly displaced people since World War II, and the root causes are stark: conflict, violence, climate change, poverty, and food insecurity.
Pope John Paul II
John Paul II was the first non-Italian pope in 455 years. He travelled abroad extensively in an effort to promote greater understanding between countries and religions, and he campaigned against political oppression, violence, and materialism. He survived an assassination attempt in 1981.
Pope Francis I
Francis is the first pope to be a member of the Society of Jesus, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere, and the first pope from outside Europe since Gregory III, a Syrian who reigned in the 8th century.
multiculturalism
the view that cultures, races, and ethnicities, particularly those of minority groups, deserve special acknowledgment of their differences within a dominant political culture.
Boris Yeltsin
Russian and Soviet politician who served as the first president of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1961 to 1990.
Slobodan Milosevic
President of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 and then the President of Yugoslavia from 1997 until 2000. He was an important figure in the Bosnian War of the 1990s and was considered to be responsible for some of the atrocities of the Bosnian Genocide.
