Key Terms
The system of governance in which a state's citizens rule and elect their leaders in free and fair elections
What is democracy?
Eventually, European states had to discard the dream of one day uniting the continent, and beyond, under a single state. They were reminiscing about this juggernaut which developed from a small Italic city-state to an empire which lasted for nearly 1,500 years
What is the Roman empire?
Mocked for his apparently, but not actually, short stature, this emperor would rule his state with an iron fist following the French Revolution
Who is Napoleon I Bonaparte?
This former KGB agent and current president of Russia has effectively held power over the Russian state since 1999
Who is Vladimir Putin?
Anne Applebaum identifies China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia as examples of this type of state
What is autocracy?
This religion was once an important international relations tool as it traveled along trade routes from India to China and beyond. In India it would later be largely replaced by Hinduism
What is Buddhism?
After serving a quarter century in prison, this anti-apartheid activist and member of the African National Congress (ANC) would be elected first president of the Republic of South Africa in 1994
Who is Nelson Mandela?
This South African business mogul served the second Trump administration in an informal capacity. In reality, he was the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
Who is Elon Musk?
A theory in international politics characterized by belief in an anarchic world system populated by self-interested states
What is realism?
This ancient Greek historian is widely considered the father of international relations due to his treatment of the Peloponnesian War, a conflict in which the poleis (i.e., city-states) Athens and Sparta fought each other
Who is Thucydides?
After securing the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, this founding father and first president of the Republic of Turkey instituted reforms meant to modernize—that is, westernize—the nation, such as replacing the fez with the wide-brimmed hat
Who is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?
This elite Russian mercenary group, formerly led by the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, currently serve as the security detail for Faustin-Archange Touadéra, autocratic president of the Central African Republic
What is the Wagner Group?
This school of thought refutes the zero-sum game asserted by realism and instead asserts that states can work together to achieve a more peaceful world
What is liberalism?
This ancient Babylonian law code was the first of its kind, invoking the gods and boasting of its composer's greatness
What is the Code of Hammurabi?
This imam was a major figure in the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and would go on to lead the new Islamic Republic of Iran as its first supreme leader
Who is Ruhollah Khomeini?
This Syrian autocrat was run out of his country in 2024 and replaced by a transitional government under the leadership of former jihadist Ahmed al-Sharaa
Who is Bashar al-Assad?
A once-dominant international relations concept originating in the 1648 treaty which ended the Thirty Years' War which asserts that every state inherently maintains indisputable sovereignty
What is the Westphalian system?
Sovereignty was not a consideration for this ancient South American people. They waged war to satisfy the sun, who craved human blood
Who are the Aztecs?
In a 2000 60 Minutes interview, Mike Wallace spoke with this former president of China about Tiananmen Square, among other topics
Who is Jiang Zemin?
President Donald Trump recently negotiated a peace agreement with Nikol Pashinyan, prime minister of Armenia, and this autocratic president of Azerbaijan. The dispute was over the region of Nagorno-Karabakh, contested by the two countries for over three decades
Who is Ilham Aliyev?