The phrase “iron curtain” was first used by former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill when he was giving a speech in America in 1946. It refers to the division between capitalist Western Europe and communist Eastern Europe.

The phrase mutually assured destruction refers to nuclear deterrence. It essentially states that it would be suicide for one nuclear power to launch a nuclear missile at another nuclear power. This is because the enemy would surely retaliate and catastrophic levels of devastation would be felt equally on both sides. It rose to prominence during the Cold War when the United States and the Soviet Union came close to obliterating one another on multiple occasions.

The Geneva Conference ended with the publishing of the Geneva Accords, which provided for the withdrawal of France from French Indochina and the division of French Indochina into Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It also provided for the division of Vietnam along the seventeenth parallel and provisions for an election to establish a united government in Vietnam. The United States violated the Geneva Accords when it became clear that a communist government would be elected in the Vietnamese elections.

The European Coal and Steel Community was founded in 1951 by the Treaty of Paris. The European Atomic Energy Community was established in 1957. The European Economic Community was established in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome. All of these organizations were designed to promote peace and mutual prosperity in Europe after World War Two and may all be understood as precursors to the later European Union (1993).

OPEC, or the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was founded in 1960 with the stated goal of controlling the global supply and price of oil. Its member countries control approximately half of the world’s supply of petroleum. The five founding members of OPEC were Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, and Kuwait.

The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty was signed in 1968. Its stated goal is to prevent the spread of nuclear technology and nuclear weapons to new countries. The treaty allows for five states, who already had nuclear weapons, to remain armed - The United States, Russia, France, China, and the United Kingdom. Only four countries in the world have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty India, Pakistan, South Sudan, and Israel. It is worth noting that North Korea did sign the treaty, but had since withdrawn.

The North American Free Trade Agreement is an agreement between the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico to create a North American trading bloc with certain rules governing trade between the three nations. It came into effect in 1994. The primary goal of the North American Free Trade Agreement was to eliminate obstacles to trade and investment between the three member nations.

All of these countries were members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization except Poland which was one of the founding members of the eastern bloc and the Warsaw Pact.

The Warsaw Pact was created in the 1950s in reaction to the growth of NATO (particularly the admittance of West Germany into NATO in 1955). The Warsaw Pact was the Eastern European, communist equivalent of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Western, capitalist Europe.

A Nongovernmental Organization (NGO) is an organization that is neither run for profit (like a business) nor a branch of any one country’s government. An NGO usually works to improve the lives of people or to provide a necessary and lifesaving service. Doctors Without Borders and Greenpeace are two famous examples of NGOs who work outside of the typical conventions in an attempt to make a difference in the world.