Africa
What is Al-Shabaab?
A rebel group in northern Mozambique that carries out beheadings.
What is the Mona Passage?
A narrow strait where shipping of radioactive wastes occur, often debated for it's environmental impact.
What is Gibraltar?
This British Overseas Territory at the Mediterranean's western gateway was annexed by Britain in 1704 and is Spain's longest-running exclave sovereignty claim.
What is the La Noria Massacre?
In 2009, Sinaloa Cartel members shot dead 16 people at a family funeral in La Noria, a village in this northern Mexican state, mistaking them for rival gang members.
What is Aum Shinrikyō?
On March 20, 1995, this apocalyptic cult released sarin gas on multiple Tokyo subway trains during the morning rush hour, killing 14 people and injuring nearly 6,000.
What are 3 countries included in the Sahel Region?
Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, and Eritrea
What is Operation Xouthos?
Operation Xouthos was the code name for the 210th and final live nuclear test conducted by France, detonated on January 27, 1996, beneath the Fangataufa lagoon in the South Pacific Ocean. It led to a global boycott of French wine.
What is the Gaza Strip?
The Gaza Strip is a small coastal territory on the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Israel and Egypt. It is one of the world's most densely populated areas, home to over 2 million Palestinians, primarily refugees.
What is Operation Car Wash?
This 2015 corruption scandal involving Brazil's state oil company Petrobras led to the imprisonment of dozens of politicians and business leaders.
What is the Osh Massacre?
In 2010, months after a revolution, this country's southern region erupted in a brutal ethnic massacre—deadliest in Central Asia's post-Soviet history.
What is the Wagner Group?
The Africa Corps is a Russian mercenary group that replaced French forces in Mali, Burkina Faso and the Central African Republic.
What is Grenada known for exporting?
This Caribbean country is the world's largest exporter of nutmeg, a fact debated in SPECPOL's trade and development agendas.
What is The Sovereign Military Order of Malta? (SMOM)
The Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM) is a 900-year-old Roman Catholic lay religious order that functions as a sovereign entity under international law.
What is restavèk?
A Haitian domestic worker registration system, condemned by SPECPOL as modern slavery.
What is the Sewol Ferry Disaster?
This 2014 South Korean ferry sinking (Sewol) killed 304 people, mostly high school students, sparking national outrage and government reforms.
What is the Sun City Agreement?
Pretoria Accord, A 2002 peace agreement that ended the Second Congo War
What is the Treaty of Tlatelolco for nuclear-free Pacific?
The UNSC invoked the "seabed arms control" provision of this 1971 treaty during debates on deep-sea mining in the Pacific.
What is the Montreux Convention?
The 1936 Montreux Convention is an international agreement governing the Turkish Straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles), giving Turkey control over the passage of warships and merchant vessels between the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
What is the Torrijos‑Carter Treaties?
This 1978 Panama-US treaty pledged to return the Panama Canal Zone, a 500-square-mile US exclave by 1999.
What are the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) Protests?
This 2019–2020 Indian citizenship law (CAA) sparked nationwide protests over religious discrimination.
What is the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta? (MEND)
MEND is a prominent, loose umbrella militant group, primarily associated with the Ijaw ethnic group that emerged in 2006 to fight for control of oil resources, economic equity, and environmental remediation in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta.
What is Bikini Atoll?
This atoll in the Marshall Islands was the site of the 1954 Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test, whose fallout caused the "Lucky Dragon" incident.
What is the Sarajevo Process?
The term "Sarajevo Process" primarily refers to the 1983 trial of 13 Muslim intellectuals for alleged Islamic fundamentalism in Yugoslavia. It is also known as the last major political persecution in socialist Yugoslavia.
What is the Estallido Social?
This 2019 social uprising in Chile began with a student protest against metro fare hikes and grew into a movement for constitutional reform.
What is Erdenes Tavan Tolgoi?
This wealthy group owns vast coal deposits and sits at the heart of Mongolia's struggle between natural resource wealth and endemic public corruption. The company's president was among 30+ officials investigated in late-2022.