Europe
In this year Russia first invaded Ukraine in order to stop it from joining NATO and the EU.
What is 2014?
This country is the largest exporter of cobalt in the world.
What is the Democratic Republic of the Congo?
This Yemen-based militant group aligned with Iran has targeted and harassed commercial shipping in the Red Sea since the war in Gaza began.
Who are the Houthis?
This foreign leader was recently forcefully imported into the United States.
Nicholas Maduro
During its 2025 summits, this regional bloc finalized a protocol expanding its free trade area with China to cover digital and green economies.
What is ASEAN?
This is the name of the intelligence alliance established in 1941 between the United States, United Kingdom, New Zealand, and Australia.
What is the Five Eyes?
This country has been rapidly increasing its military capacity partially influenced by tensions with Morocco.
What is Algeria?
Founded in 1945 and headquartered in Cairo, this regional organization seeks political coordination among Arab states and has suspended members such as Egypt in 1979 and Syria in 2011.
What is the Arab League?
This 1962 crisis brought the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of nuclear war after Moscow deployed nuclear missiles to this Caribbean island nation.
What is the Cuban Missile Crisis?
A key territorial dispute between China and the Philippines involves this island/ shoal in the South China Sea/ West Philippine Sea.
What is Scarborough Shoals?
Since February 2022, Russian forces have suffered nearly this many casualties.
1.2 million
In 2001, Goldman Sachs coined the phrase BRIC as an acronym for the four biggest developing economies: Brazil Russia, India, China. This country was added as the S in the acronym in 2010.
What is South Africa?
Major nationwide protests at the beginning of the year, followed by a harsh government crackdown and mass arrests, occurred in this Islamic Republic.
What is Iran?
In February 2026, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright visited this capital to discuss revitalizing the nation’s oil industry after sanctions were eased and private investment laws were introduced.
What is Caracas, Venezuela?
This bilateral defense pact, concluded in 2025 and ratified by both legislatures, allows reciprocal military access between Japan and this other Indo-Pacific country.
What is the Philippines and Japan Reciprocal Access Agreement?
This Shadow Fleet ship renamed itself the ‘Marinera’ and painted a Russian flag its side in an attempt to avoid US forces.
What is the Bella 1?
Formed in 2002 as the successor to the Organization of African Unity, this Addis Ababa–based body promotes continental integration and authorizes peacekeeping missions such as AMISOM.
What is the African Union?
Launched in 1991 after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, this UN Security Council–authorized operation expelled Iraqi forces and marked the first major post–Cold War test of U.S.-led collective security.
What is Operation Desert Storm (or the Gulf War)?
In 1977 the Torrijos-Carter Treaties guaranteed the transfer of control of the Panama Canal from which country back to Panama after 1999?
United States
This Pacific geopolitical practice involving the gifting of vehicles has become symbolic of influence-building efforts by China, Australia, the U.S., and Japan.
What is Pacific “car diplomacy”?
Looking to stimulate a stagnant Soviet economy in the '80s, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced this P-word political movement that's Russian for "reconstruction" or "restructuring"
What is Perestroika?
Established after the 1994 genocide, this UN tribunal seated in Arusha prosecuted individuals responsible for crimes against humanity and helped shape modern international criminal law doctrine on genocide.
What is the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)?
Established in 1981 partly as a collective security response to the Iran–Iraq War, this bloc includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE and coordinates economic and defense policy among six monarchies.
What is the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)?
Founded in 1948 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., this regional body promotes democracy and collective security through instruments like the Inter-American Democratic Charter.
What is the Organization of American States (OAS)?
This Japanese leader triggered a diplomatic row in 2025 by suggesting that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan could be seen as a “survival‑threatening situation” for Japan, potentially enabling the use of collective self‑defense under domestic law.
Who is Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi?