Glossary Terms Flashcards
Know them all (35 cards)
Active Measures
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.
Agent of Influence
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.
agrément
official approval by a government of a proposed ambassador from a foreign government. Approval or consent
aide memoire
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.
Alliance
a formal agreement between two or more parties made in order to advance a common goal or secure interests
Anarchy
absence of the formal system of government. a complete state of lawlessness
Anschluss
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.
ANZUS
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.
Apartheid
social, political, and economic policy from 1948 to 1994 marked for its discrimination against non-European groups in the Republic of South Africa.
Appeasement
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
Arbitrage
simultaneous purchase and sale of the same securities, commodities, or foreign exchange in different markets to profit from unequal prices
Armistice
A suspension of hostilities between warring parties, truce; not necessarily permanent.
Arms Control
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.
Asylum
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.
Asymmetrical Warfare
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.
Autarky
Economic self-sufficiency.
Authoritarianism
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.
Balance of Payments
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.”
Balance of Power
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.
Battlespace
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.
BBC
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.
Bipolarity
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.
Bolshevism
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.
Boycott
To abstain from commercial relations with another entity as an expression of protest or disfavor or as a means of coercion
