The End of the Cold War
A proposal by Ronald Reagan to intercept incoming nuclear missiles using lasers fired from orbital platforms.
Star Wars (Strategic Defense Initiative)
Established federal standards in education and test-based performance measurement.
No Child Left Behind Act
A cabinet-level department formed in 2002 in response to the 9/11 attacks
Department of Homeland Security
A 1986 law signed by Ronald Reagan. It made it a crime to knowingly hire an illegal immigrant, but also legalized millions of immigrants who had unlawfully entered the U.S. before January 1, 1982.
Immigration and Control Act
created a free trade block between Canada, Mexico, and the United States
NAFTA
A policy instituted by Gorbachev, it allowed Soviet citizens to publicly criticize the government and discuss social problems in the hope of finding solutions.
Glasnost or otherwise known as “openness”
A health care reform act that reduced the uninsured population via expanded Medicaid eligibility and a reworking of the individual insurance marketplace.
Affordable Care Act
Typically refers to a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon that can kill a large number of people in a single action.
Weapons of mass destruction
A region of the United States centered around the Great Lakes and upper Midwest. The term references the economic decline of the country’s former industrial heartland.
Rust Belt
Formed in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference, the IMF facilitates global trade to avoid another Great Depression.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
A policy instituted by Gorbachev, it introduced limited free market reforms to the Soviet Union’s socialist planned economy. A key aspect of the Soviet Union’s fall.
Perestroika (“restructuring”)
A pledge that listed specific conservative policies the GOP would enact if they gained control of the House of Representatives in the 1994 midterm elections.
Contract with America
A Salafist jihadist transnational terrorist organization. Formed in 1988 by veteran mujahideen fighting against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. Orchestrated the 9/11 attacks, along with other attacks in several other countries over the years.
Al-Qaeda
The policy of favoring members of a historically disadvantaged group, usually in the context of employment or education
Affirmative action
A global banking crisis that arose from the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market. Resulted in the federal bailout of U.S. banks. Leads to the Great Recession
2008 Financial Crisis