Key Terms
- al-Qaeda
- an Islamic terrorist organization financed and led by militant Saudi Arabian national Osama bin Laden and responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001
- Arab Spring
- a popular movement calling for government reform and democracy that spread across the Arab world in 2011
- bulletin board system (BBS)
- pre-internet computer networks that consisted of personal computers connected with each other via modems and phone lines
- climate change
- broad changes in temperature, weather, storm activity, wind patterns, sea levels, and other influences on the planet
- European Union (EU)
- a single-market zone created in 1993 to allow the free movement of goods, services, money, and people among European member states
- General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
- a 1947 trade agreement among twenty-three countries to reinforce postwar economic recovery, later replaced by the World Trade Organization (WTO)
- global warming
- the general rise in Earth’s temperature that scientists have observed over approximately the past two hundred years
- globalization
- the interconnectedness of societies and economies throughout the world as a result of trade, technology, and adoption and sharing of various aspects of culture
- green parties
- political parties organized around environmental concerns
- Islamic State
- a fundamentalist and militant Islamic group that grew in power and waged a war in Iraq and Syria following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003
- multinational corporation
- a corporate business entity that controls the production of goods and services in multiple countries
- North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
- a 1992 trade agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico to reduce trade barriers and allow goods to flow freely
- offshoring
- the process of moving some of a company’s operations overseas to access cheaper labor markets
- outsourcing
- the process of hiring outside contractors, sometimes abroad, to perform tasks a company once performed internally
- Paris Agreement
- a 2015 treaty among members of the United Nations to limit global warming to less than 2°C (3.6°F) above levels from the time of industrialization
- resource curse
- the problem that makes resource-rich developing countries prone to authoritarianism, high rates of conflict, and low rates of economic growth
- ultranationalist movements
- organizations that support an extreme form of nationalism and often seek ethnically homogeneous homelands