Obscure but Deadly Conflicts
This conflict which ran from 1980 to 1988 pitted secular Arab socialism against radical Shia Islam and featured significant use of chemical weapons.
What is the Iran-Iraq War?
Mexican drug smugglers who had completely corrupted the Mexican police by 2006 when president Felipe Calderón took office.
Who are the narcotraficantes?
Religious symbol not allowed to be worn in French middle and high schools due to long-established concepts of national equality and state secularism.
What are head-scarves?
This 1986 nuclear power plant explosion in Ukraine caused thousands of deaths.
What is the Chernobyl nuclear disaster?
Afghan guerrilla fighters who used U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles and other arms to eventually push the Soviets out of their country.
Who are the mujahidin?
Conflict initiated by Argentine generals which led to their ouster in the presidential election of October 1983.
What is the Falklands/Malvinas War?
Restructuring of the Soviet economy to facilitate opening to free-market forces.
What is perestroika?
Every Jew’s right of migration to Israel.
What is aliya?
Brazil leads the world in this form of alternative energy which was meant to supplement Petrobrás’ oil production.
What is ethanol from sugarcane?
Japanese crime families linked to the Finance Ministry which contributed to the 1989 Tokyo stock market crash.
What are yakuza?
Uprising by ethnic minority in southeastern Turkey that lasted from 1984 to 1998.
What is the Kurdish rebellion?
A form of insurance against subprime mortgage failure that helped bring on the 2008 housing bubble crash.
What are credit default swaps?
The innovative Christian teaching illustrated by Archbishop Câmara's quote: “When I fed the poor, they called me a saint. When I asked, ‘Why are they poor?’ they called me a Communist.”
What is liberation theology?
Renewable energy source that saw a 41 percent per year growth rate from 2002 to 2007.
What are solar photovoltaics?
Mostly middle class Argentine college students who “disappeared” during the military crackdown on the Left during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Who are the desaparecidos?
Nigerian “Eastern Region” that declared its independence in 1967 only to be defeated by the national forces and reunited with the larger nation in 1970.
What is Biafra?
Predatory economic activity taken up by the have-nots off the Horn of Africa.
What is Somali piracy?
Chinese religious group condemned by Beijing and sent to forced labor in the early 2000s.
What is Falun Dafa/Falun Gong?
Rapid improvement in food production in India in the late 1960s brought about by improved seed quality, increased irrigation, and heavy use of chemical fertilizer.
What is the “green revolution”?
Iranian “revolutionary guard” units that replaced the shah’s military forces.
Who are the pasdaran?
South Indian rebels who also fought a prolonged conflict against the Sri Lankan majority Sinhalese government.
Who are the Tamil militants?
Japanese combination of big business, the Liberal Democratic Party, and the bureaucracy that helped sustain economic growth through the 1980s.
What is the iron triangle?
Hindu militants destroyed this Muslim place of worship in 1992 touching off nation-wide violence leaving thousands of Indians dead.
What is the Ayodhya mosque?
This vital component in the production of battery-powered automobiles comes from a Latin American country which has the world's largest supply.
What is Bolivian lithium?
One of the most widely admired populist socialisms put into practice in Tanzania known as “kinship communalism.”
What is ujamaa?