Denazification: The Allied policy to rid German society, culture, press and economy of any remnants of Nazi ideology.
Wartime Conference: The”Big Three”met on three occasions to work out the post-war world: in Terhan (1943), in Yalta (February 1945), in Potsdam (July 1945)
Bloc: A group of countries which belong to the same economic and military organisation. They are linked by a similar ideology and the common recognition of a leader.
Cold war: The extremely tense situation that opposed the USSR and its allied countries to the USA and its allies from 1947 ti 1991. It led to an ideological and economic confrontation, as well as a nuclear arms race. Several geopolitical breaks occurred: the “iron curtain” and violent peripheral conflicts like the Korean war and the Vietnam war.
Peaceful co-existence: The policy suggested by Khrushchev in 1956 to allow the USSR to bridge the technological gap with the western world. Nevertheless, the USSR didn’t give up its expansionist objectives.
Détente: A period of relaxation of international tensions in the wake of the Cuban crisis.
Independence: The access of a people to full-fledged sovereignty.
Self-determination: The right for a people to decide their own political future.
Decolonisation: The process leading to the withdrawal of Imperial powers from the countries they had colonized.
Association: The policy aiming at keeping colonized populations apart without giving them access to homeland citizen rights.
Emancipation: The process through which a colonized people frees itself from a colonial domination.
Non-alignment: The policy implemented by newly-independent nations, consisting in not becoming involved in the East-West confrontation.
Perestroika: (restructuring) refers to Gorbatchev’s policy aimed to decentralize the economic system, fight against corruption and introduce some free-market principles.
Glasnost: (openness) refers to Gorbatchev’s policy aimed at promoting freedom of speech and access to information.
Islamism: A political ideology advocating the setting up of a state in which institutions, society and the economy are based on Islamic principles.
Unilateralism: Refers to a foreign policy of a state acting alone to promote its self interest, without taking other states’ opinions into account.
Multilateralism: Refers to a foreign policy based on cooperation and negotiation
Multipolar/unipolar world: A world dominated by several powers/ a world dominated by a single power.
Welfare state: A series of laws that ensured a national social security system in West European countries from 1945.
Liberal democracy: A political regime founded on national sovereignty and multiparty system.
Liberalism : a political or social philosophy advocating the freedom of the individual, parliamentary systems of government, non violent modification of political, social, or economic institutions to assure unrestricted development in all spheres of human endeavor, and governmental guarantees of individual rights and civil liberties.
Capitalism: An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.
People’s democracy/People’s republic/Socialist democracy: A political regime ruling East European countries from 1945-1948 to 1989. Its institutions, society and economic structures emulated the Soviet model, with the USSR exerting an all-prevailing influence.
Populism or popularism: is a political doctrine that proposes that the common people are exploited by a privileged elite, and which seeks to resolve this. Its goal is uniting the uncorrupt and the unsophisticated "little man" against the corrupt dominant elites (usually established politicians) and their camp of followers (usually the rich and influential). It is guided by the belief that political and social goals are best achieved by the direct actions of the masses.
Eurosceptism: suspicious attitude towards the European construction.
Single market: name given to an economic area that is even more unified than the common market. In addition to the free movement of goods, persons, capital and services, there is a harmonization of the laws of the Member States.
ECSC: European Coal and Steel Community. It creates a common market for steel and coal between France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg.
EEC: European Economic Community, it establishes a common market and common policies to bring the Member States closer together.
EDC: European Defense Community established in 1952 but finally failed.
Unanimity: voting procedure based on the agreement of all members. The principle of State sovereignty is respected, at the risk of blocking the functioning of the institutions and of preventing the implementation of common policies.
Qualified majority: voting procedure where each State has a number of votes commensurate with its population. To be adopted, a decision must reach a certain number of votes (in 1958, 12 votes out of 17).