By: Mohima Yeasmin
Political and Military
Cooperation
 Cold war: (1940s-1990s) most states
joined the U.N. as well as regional
organizations
 Regional organizations: put in to
prevent and 3rd word war and to protect
from foreign attack
The United Nations
 Established in 1945
 Stared as 49 states, grew to 191 in 2003
 Rapidly increased in:
 1955: 16 countries joined; mostly
European
 1960: 17 countries joined
 1990: 26 countries joined; break up
of soviet union and Yugoslavia
The 5 permanent members
of the Security Council
China
France
Russia
United Kingdom
United States
They could veto
League of Nations
World’s first attempt at
international peacemaking was the
League of Nation
Established after World War I
Was never effective
In 1930s Germany, Italy, Japan, and
the Soviet Union withdrew
Regional Military Alliances
In addition to joining the U.N.
lots of states joined regional
military alliances
Resulted to states as
superpowers:
Soviet Union
United States
Era of Two Superpowers
 Before World War I, 8 great powers
existed
 By 1940s is when the other countries were
sort of beaten by the two world wars and
only the U.S. and the Soviet Union
remained
 When lots of states were ranked in the
great powers range with equal strength,
not one state could dominate so they
joined up to form a balance of powers
NATO
 North Atlantic Treaty Org.
 Signed Washington Treaty in 1949
 Originally made to prevent Soviet Union
from overrunning West Germany
 Now used to promote peace and security
 A military alliance
 US and Canada are the only countries not in
Europe
Warsaw Pact
Military alliance of
communist E. Europe
countries
Made to defend each
other if one was attacked
OAS
Org. of American States
Western hemisphere
Promotes social, cultural,
political and economics
links
OAU
Org. for African Unity
Promoted end of colonialism
in Africa
Priority-eliminate minority,
white-ruled government in S.
Africa
Commonwealth of
Nations
UK and other former British
colonies, African states or
islands
Made to get economic and
cultural cooperation
European Union
 Increasingly turned to economic cooperation
 Western Europe's most important organization
 Formerly known as the European Economic
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Community, the common market, and the European
Community
Established in 1958
Included 6 countries: Belgium, France, West Germany,
Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands
Main task of the European Union is promote
development within the member states
simultaneously
Being in the E.U. it makes it easy for the members to
trade and cross borders
Former Communist Countries
and the E.U.
 In 1949 during the cold was 7 Eastern European
communist states in the Warsaw Pact formed an
organization for economic cooperation, the council
for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON)
 Germany lost most of it’s territory after WWII
 After Germany was defeated in World War II the
victorious allies carved the country and it’s capital
city of Berlin into four zones
 Each zone was controlled by one of the victors: the
U.S. France the U.K. and the former Soviet Union
Former Communist Countries
and the E.U. cont…
 Eight former communist countries joined the
E.U. in 2004 that made the most progress in
converting to market economies: the Czech
Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia,
Lithuania, Poland, the Slovak Republic and
Slovenia, Cyprus, and Malta
 Turkey was not European enough to join the
E.U.
Global Forces, Local
Impacts
 ***German Domination of Western Europe
 Economic and political unity may have
reduced the importance of nation-states in
Western Europe
 Germany is a newer nation- state than
others of western Europe
Satellite Imagery of Military
Sites
 Geographers interpret images sent from
satellites to understand what is going on in
places that cannot be reached by foot or a
motor vehicle
 Photographs taken by reconnaissance aircraft
have long been an important military tool
 The U.S. and other countries have long
depended on satellite images to monitor
military activities in other places in the world