| Term | Definition |
| Amnesty | the act of granting pardon to a large group of people |
| Bilingualism | the practice of teaching immigrant students in their own language |
| Brinkmanship | the willingness to go to the brink of war to force an opponent to back down |
| Communism | an economic system in which the central government directs all major economic decisions |
| Confederacy | a loose union of independent states; name of government used by the southern states that seceded during the Civil War |
| Conservative | a person who believes government power, particularly in the economy, should be limited in order to maximize individual freedom |
| Containment | the policy designed to keep the Soviet Union from expanding its power |
| Corporation | an organization that is authorized by law to carry on an activity but treated as though it were a single person |
| Détente | relaxation of tensions between the United States and its two major Communist rivals, the Soviet Union and China |
| Downsizing | reducing a company in size by laying off workers and managers to become more efficient |
| Ethnic Cleansing | the expulsion, imprisonment, or killing of ethnic minorities by a dominant majority group |
| Euro | the basic currency shared by the countries of the European Union since 1999 |
| Fascism | a political system headed by a dictator that calls for extreme nationalism and racism and has no tolerance for opposition |
| Flexible Response | the buildup of conventional troops and weapons to allow a nation to fight a limited war without using nuclear weapons |
| Impeachment | a formal accusation of misconduct in office against a public official |
| Imperialism | the actions used by one nation to exercise political or economic control over smaller or weaker nation |
| Insurrection | an act of rebellion against the established government |
| Internationalism | a national policy of actively trading with foreign countries to foster peace and prosperity |
| Isolationism | the avoidance of involvement in world affairs |
| Liberal | a person who generally believes the government should take an active role in the economy and in social programs but that the government should not dictate social behavior |
| Multinational Corporation | large corporation with overseas investments |
| Nuclear Proliferation | the spread of nuclear weapons to new nations |
| Nullification | the failure or refusal of a U.S. state to aid in the enforcement of federal laws within its state limits |
| Political Machine | an organization linked to a political party that often controlled local government |
| Segregation | the separation or isolation of a race, class, or group |
| Self-Determination | belief that people in a territory should have the ability to choose their own government |
| State Sponsored Terrorism | violent acts against civilians that are secretly supported by a government in order to attack other nations without going to war |
| Subversion | a systematic attempt to overthrow a government by using persons working secretly from within |
| Suffrage | the right to vote |
| Terrorism | the use of violence by non-governmental groups against civilians to achieve a political goal by instilling fear and frightening governments into changing policies |