The League of Nations was the brainchild of American President Woodrow Wilson. In the wake of the Second World War, Wilson published his Fourteen Points designed to preserve peace and order in the world. Part of the Fourteen Points was the proposal for a “League of Nations” that would act as an international arbiter in conflicts and that would enforce peace, prosperity, and freedom of the seas. Wilson gained a great deal of international support, but failed to win the support of his own Congress. Congress, in the United States, has to ratify all treaties signed by the American government. America at the time was decidedly isolationist in nature, and Congress refused to allow the United States to be a member of the League of Nations. As a result, the League continued without the most powerful nation in the world, just one of the many reasons it would prove ineffective during the interwar years.

The United Nations was created in the wake of the Second World War and the permanent members of the UN’s Security Council still reflect this time period. The United Kingdom, Russia (then the Soviet Union), France, the United States of America, and China were the victors in the Second World War, and they are the five permanent members of the Security Council. Japan, as one of the losers of the Second World War, is not a permanent member of the Security Council.

The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in the 1950s by several countries in Western and Northern Europe. The original intention was to marry the economies of Germany and France so heavily that a future outbreak of war between the two countries would lead to economic ruin for both of them. Understood in a post-World War Two context, this decision makes a great deal of sense, as much of the trauma of the past century of European history had been caused by territorial disputes between France and Germany. Over time, more countries joined the European Coal and Steel Community, and its influence grew into the European common market and the European Union.

The European Union was codified in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht. It was signed by twelve nations originally, but has since expanded to include the majority of the European continent. The Treaty of Maastricht created the common economic union of Europe and provided impetus for the creation of a standard currency—the Euro.

The United Nations is frequently accused of being an undemocratic organization, particularly by countries not found in the western world. This accusation is based on the fact that the powers afforded to the various members vary greatly. There are five permanent members of the Security Council - the U.S., Russia, France, the U.K., and China. These five countries have powers above and beyond the powers afforded to the rest of the world, including the ability to veto any proposed security council resolution.

NAFTA aimed to create a free trade area between the United States, Mexico, and Canada- including market expansion and integration, and eliminating tariffs between the member states. The U.S. money supply in controlled by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury, and unaffected by NAFTA.

A centripetal force in politics is any action that unites the people of a nation as one singular political unit. Events that create division or push people in a nation away from each other is known as a centrifugal force. A classic example of a centripetal force is any kind of attack on a nation, as it usually serves to create a mentality that the entire country was attacked.

A forward capital is a symbolically relocated capital city, usually because of either economic or strategic reasons. The former capital of Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, was located on the coast, and the residents of the interior felt distant from the government. The Brazilian government built a new capital, Brasilia, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest to try to unite the country. All the other capitals were not made capitals for this reason.

Nationalistic forces that bind a country together are called “centripetal forces.” Common examples of “centripetal forces” include a shared sense of common history, a shared language, reliable national institutions, and government legitimacy. The opposite of “centripetal forces” are “centrifugal forces,” which divide a country.

The term “Balkanization” comes from the Balkans region of Southeastern Europe. For many hundreds of years, the Balkans have been home to a large number of disparate and often hostile nationalities, usually governed under the administration of one empire (Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, Yugoslavian). In the 1990s, this all disintegrated as each nationality sought its own state and control over the other nationalities. The term “Balkanization” has come to mean the hostile fragmentation of a large state into several smaller countries. Although it does not technically have to be wholly hostile, it generally is.