EU or the EUROPEAN UNION is an American project that was founded after WWII to ensure Europe would remain dependent on the United States as the dominant power in the West. The United States had the sole advantage of being the only major power not decimated by war in the early 20th century. After the First and Second World Wars, the idea of a “United States of Europe” seemed like a way to keep Europe from fracturing into conflict once again. The Marshall Plan, a huge reconstruction investment made by America in war torn Europe, came on the condition that Western European countries unite into a common free market. Individual nations were pushed toward a Liberal political ideology, if not a union of states. George Kennan, an American diplomat, summed up the vision: “We hoped to force the Europeans to think like Europeans, and not like nationalists.” Another goal was to align a European bloc of nations economically with the interests of the United States and NATO (also formed around the same time). Over the years, it was known under various names and incarnations, including the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1957, and the European Community Union (ECU) in 1993. As of the writing of this book, the EU is made up of 27 member states. Of these 27 countries, 19 use the common reserve currency, the euro.
THE WARSAW PACT comprised the countries occupied by the Soviet Union after WWII. According to an agreement between the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union, the nations of Europe would assume the political and economic architecture of whichever nation defeated and occupied Nazi Germany’s conquests in that region. Liberalism and communism provided the frameworks for Western and Eastern Europe respectively. Political boundaries were also redrawn that especially affected Germany, then divided into West Germany and East Germany. Several other countries in Eastern Europe, notably, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania were forced to cede lands to the Soviet Republics of Belarus and Ukraine. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved in 1991 at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
NATO or the NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION was formed with 11 original members in 1948 shortly after World War II. The stated purpose was “to guarantee the freedom and security of its members through political and military means.” There were nine western European members, plus the USA and Canada, all of whom had been allies in the war. There was concern about rearming Germany after its role in World War I and II. The military purpose concerning Western Europe was “to keep the USA in, the USSR out, and Germany down.” However, West Germany joined in 1955 one year after Turkey and Greece. The purpose of NATO then became specifically to defend against a possible Soviet Union invasion from the east. After the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact in 1991, the expansion has included nearly every Central and Eastern European nation. NATO’s role since 1991 has focused on military operations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo, North Macedonia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan. In 2022, the Russian Federation cited the invitation to Ukraine to join NATO as one of the reasons for the special military operation and invasion of Ukraine on February 22nd of that year. NATO expanded to 32 members in 2024.
“NOT ONE INCH EASTWARD” was the promise made in writing by Western powers to the Soviet Union not to expand NATO towards their border. This was one of the ways in which Western countries negotiated German reunification with Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev. German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher announced on January 31, 1990, “No matter what happens in the Warsaw Pact countries, there will be no expansion of NATO territory to the east, that is, closer to the borders of the Soviet Union.” According to at least 30 other declassified documents written from 1990 to 1991, this promise was clear. One example is the memorandum of US Secretary of State James Baker, “We understand the need for assurances to the countries in the East. If we maintain a presence in a Germany that is a part of NATO, there would be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction for forces of NATO one inch to the east.”26
G7 or the GROUP OF SEVEN is a political forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a “non-enumerated member.” It is organized around the shared western values of “pluralism, liberal democracy, and representative government.” The G7 was once known as the G8 and included the Russian Federation until they were expelled in 2014 following the accession of Crimea to Russia. The group functions as a Western ideological forum for global policy. Although the G7 includes the top Western economic super powers, it does not include other top ten economies (in terms of GDP/PPP) such as China, India, Russia, Indonesia, or Brazil. Due to internal divisions and the rise of alternative institutions such as the G20, some experts have questioned the G7’s relevance.
G20 or the GROUP OF TWENTY is an international forum comprising 19 countries and the European Union (EU). It works to address major issues related to the global economy, such as international financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development. The G20 is composed of most of the world’s largest economies’ finance ministries, including both industrialized and developing nations. It accounts for around 80 percent of the gross world product (GWP), 75 percent of international trade, two-thirds of the global population, and 60 percent of the world’s land area. Member nations include as of 2024: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union. Guest invitees include, among others, Spain, the United Nations, the World Bank, the African Union, and ASEAN.
AU or the AFRICAN UNION is a coalition of 55 African states. All the countries on the continent are represented except for suspended members – Gabon, Niger, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Mali. Suspended countries are still considered members, but are temporarily shut out of the organization’s meetings and denied a vote. The AU has a policy of suspending countries whose leadership changes in a way that violates the country’s constitution, especially in the case of a military coup. The African Union originated in the First Congress of Independent African States held in Ghana in 1958. The purpose was to unite to help nations free themselves from foreign dictatorships. This led to subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. In reality, the organizations did little to protect the human rights of Africans. After 1991, many African states held free elections for the first time. The idea of creating the AU was then revived under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi. The OAU issued the Sirte Declaration (in Sirte, Libya) in 1999 calling for the establishment of an African Union. Gaddafi went as far as to push for a “United States of Africa.”
ASEAN is an economic alliance of countries in Southeast Asia – Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, which collectively represent a market with a GDP of more than $2.9 trillion and a population of 647 million people. Overall these countries accounted for 7 percent of global GDP and 9 percent of global GDP growth from 2012 to 2022.
AUKUS is an acronym for a trilateral military security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States founded in September 2021. Future members might include New Zealand, Canada and Japan. Under the pact, the US and UK will share nuclear propulsion technology for naval vessels with Australia, as they have done with each other since 1958. The People’s Republic of China has voiced concern over the pact as promoting a “Cold War mentality.” The transfer of US and UK nuclear submarine technology including enriched uranium has also been criticized by scholars and politicians as an act of nuclear proliferation.
EAEU or the EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION is a free trade agreement that came into being in 2015 to increase economic cooperation and raise the standard of living of its members. Member countries include Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Originally, Ukraine was invited to join when President Viktor Yanukovych was rebuffed in his more immediate overtures for his country to join the EU. His willingness to align with Russia economically resulted in the violent Euromaidan revolution in Kiev,27 Ukraine in early 2014, which ousted Yanukovych from power.
BRICS was a term coined by Jim O’Neill, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, in a 2001 study entitled, “Building Better Global Economic BRICs.” O’Neill noticed that the four fastest growing economies in the world were not western countries, but Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC). As a bloc of nations they had a larger GDP than the United States and the EU combined. Each nation now has a large population with a combined total of 3.25 billion people, which is over 40 percent of the world’s population. The countries began to meet formally in 2006. By 2011, BRIC added South Africa to become BRICS. The primary objective is to promote economic and political cooperation among member countries as an alternative to the G7. BRICS holds annual summits rotating among the five countries for the purpose of dialog on issues such as world trade, currency exchange, and finance investment in the emerging nations’ infrastructure. As of yet, BRICS does not have a formal organizational structure as an alliance or federation, such as the EU. It operates on the basis of consensus as a forum for dialogue and has established various mechanisms for cooperation, such as the New Development Bank (NDB), and other means of financial exchange between BRICS and other nations. The main purpose is for cooperation, development, and influence in international affairs. To speak of the danger of BRICS possibly replacing the United States or the EU is to think in terms of the necessity of a global unipolar hegemon. Rather, BRICS is evidence of a growing multipolar world.
BRICS+ is the acronym for BRICS plus Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and (possibly) Argentina,28 which were invited to join the summit meetings in 2023. Over 40 countries, including Algeria, Bolivia, Indonesia, Mexico, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Comoros, Gabon, Turkey and Kazakhstan have expressed interest in joining the forum. With the expansion, the group has begun to work on resolving regional problems surrounding the territories of member states, such as, the Iranian nuclear program; conflicts in Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan; tackling reforms at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF); and establishing the BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism (ICM).
26 “NATO Expansion: What Gorbachev Heard,” National Security Archive. https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/russia-programs/2017-12-12/nato-expansion-what-gorbachev-heard-western-leaders-early.
27 Throughout the book, I use “Kiev” in order to refer to the city’s English spelling prior to 1991 when the Ukrainian Cyrillic transliteration of “Kyiv” became standardized. In my opinion, both spellings are correct even though “yi” is not a proper English language vowel for the long “e” sound.
28 On the election of the Trump-leaning libertarian, President Javier Melei a few months later, it appeared that his administration would decline the invitation.
Glossary Headings
Political Theories
Modern Political Movements
Forms of Government
Modern Political Counterfeits
Political World Orders
Culture and Society
Epistemology
Globalism
Regional and Global Organizations
World Reserve Currency
World Financial Organizations
Globalist Think Tanks, Theories, and Doctrines
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