Term | Definition |
Bilateral Diplomacy | a relationship, two states deal with each other one-on-one |
Bipolar | international system, two dominant states |
Colonialism | the direct administration of a territory and its people by an outside power |
Culture Areas | analytic categories of geographic regions, based on the similarity of the ethnic groups within them |
General Assembly | institution of the United Nations, all member states are represented with one vote each. Serves as a forum for debating and voting on resolutions dealing with world issues |
Globalization | the process of increasing interconnectedness between societies such that events in one part of the world affect more and more people and societies far away |
Government | the one institution in a society that has legitimate claim to exercise decisive authority over its population |
International Government Organization (IGO) | agencies deal with global or regional interests (their members are states) |
International Monetary Fund (IMF) | this IGO provides loans to member states to stabilize their currencies |
Legitimacy | this attitude accepts that the existing government is justified, its laws should be obeyed, and its rule conforms to commonly accepted values |
Most-favored-nation status | the agreement between two states which lower their tariffs with each other to match the lowest that each charges any other trading partners on a specific category of product |
Multilateral Diplomacy | states negotiate and take action within the framework of IGOs |
Nation | an ethnic/cultural group that has several shared characteristics such as language, history, and religion |
Nationalism | an individual's feeling of identity with an ethnic group based on several shared characteristics, such as language, history, religion |
Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) | private groups formed to take action in response to a specified global issue, such as threats to the natural environment or human rights |
Patriotism | placing one's primary identity and loyalty in the state |
Security Council | the Charter of the United Nations has given this institution the important role of responding to threats to the world peace |
State | complex political structure includes citizens from a variety of nations (ethnicities) - considered most powerful institution in the international system & have four characteristics: territory, government, loyal population, & recognition from other states |
United Nations | worldwide political international governmental organizations includes almost all of the world's states as members |
World Bank | this IGO provides loans to member states for specific development projects |
World Trade Organization (WTO) | the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); WTO fosters free trade |