| Term | Definition |
| Al-Qaida | An international terrorist group led by Osama Bin Laden |
| Taliban | A radical Muslim faction that controlled Afghanistan until it was disbanded by the United States in 2002. |
| Yitzhak Rabin | The Israeli Prime Minister who fell victim to an Israeli assassin in 1995 |
| Saddam Hussein | The former dictator of Iraq, found guilty of human rights violations. He was removed from power by U.S. led forces in 2003 |
| Hamas | A radical Palestinian group supported by Iran |
| Boris Yeltsin | The first president of the newly formed Russia in 1991 |
| Chechnya | Part of former Soviet Union whose quest for independence has been curtailed by Russian military |
| Vladimir Putin | An individual who became President of Russia in 2000 through the country's first free elections |
| Kurds | The ethnic minority in Turkey and Iraq whose efforts to win freedom have led to repression |
| Serbs | An ethnic group that dominates in Bosnia, Kosovo, and other regions of the former Yugoslavia |
| Slobodan Milosevic | A Serb extremist leader who stirred ethnic unrest to help gain control of the former Yugoslavia |
| Bosnia | An area in former Yugoslavia where ethnic tensions have risen between Serbs and Muslims |
| Helmut Kohl | The West German Chancellor in the 1990's who was considered the architect of German reunification |
| Irish Republican Army | The Catholic terrorist group in Ireland fighting to unify the nation by driving British Protestants from Northern Ireland |
| North American Free Trade Agreement | The agreement between the United States, Canada, and Mexico created to boost prosperity by lowering trade barriers between member nations |
| Pacific Rim | A group of nations in Asia and the Americas that border the Pacific Ocean |
| Asylum | Protection from arrest granted by a government to a political refugee |
| Autonomy | Self rule |
| Coalition | A temporary alliance between various political parties or nations |
| Ethnic Cleansing | The policy of forcibly removing or killing people of a certain ethnic group |
| Junta | A group of military officers ruling a country after seizing power |
| Sovereignty | Complete independence and self-government |
| Terrorism | The deliberate use of random violence, especially against civilians, to achieve political goals |
| Self-Determination | A people's ability to choose their own government |