Alternative Energy Sources: Often referenced as any energy source that is an alternative to fossil fuel.

Arab Spring: A series of demonstrations and protests, both nonviolent and violent, riots and civil wars that occurred in the Arab World beginning in December 2010.

Comparative Advantage: when a good can be produced at a lower cost in terms of other goods.

Disparity: A significant difference or inequality.

Domestic Terrorism: Acts of violence perpetrated by a citizen or permanent resident of a nation against citizens or property within that country, typically without any foreign influence.

Economic growth: the increase in the market value of goods and services produced by an economy over time, usually expressed as per capita GDP.

Ethics: The branch of philosophy that deals with morality. Ethics is concerned with distinguishing between good and evil in the world, right and wrong human actions, and virtuous and unvirtuous characteristics of people.

Ethnic Cleansing: The systematic forced removal of an ethnic or religious group from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous.

Exports: goods and services shipped out of a country.

Fair trade: a social movement whose stated goal is to increase equity in international trading partnerships, help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and promote sustainability.

Food Security: Condition related to the supply of food, and individuals’ access to it. Concerns over food security have existed throughout history.

Foreign Terrorist Organizations: All non-United States based organizations that are involved in terrorist activities.

Fossil Fuels:  Fuels formed by natural processes such as decomposition of buried dead organisms. Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum, coal, and natural gas.

Free trade: Trade of goods without taxes or trade barriers to allow unregulated access to a market.

Fundamentalism: The strict adherence to a set of beliefs applied to specific scriptures or ideologies.

Genocide: The intentional action to systematically eliminate an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group.

Global Climate Change: The observed century-scale rise in the average temperature of the Earth’s climate system and its related effects.

Globalization: Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations; a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology.

Human Rights: Inalienable rights that are regularly protected as legal rights under national and international law. These rights are inherent for all human beings regardless of the nation, location, language, religion, ethnic origin, or any other status.

Human Trafficking: The trade of humans, most commonly for the purpose of sexual slavery, forced labor, or commercial sexual exploitation, for the trafficker or others.

Hierarchy: A system or organization in which people or groups are ranked one above the other according to status or authority.

Imports: goods and services brought into a country from another.

Intergovernmental Organizations (IGOs): An IGO is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states, or of other intergovernmental organizations. IGOs are established by treaty or other agreement that acts as a charter creating the group. Examples include the United Nations, the World Bank, or the European Union.

International Criminal Court (ICC): An intergovernmental organization that has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

International Monetary Fund (IMF): an international government organization with a goal to promote economic and monetary stability and to provide resources to countries in financial difficulty.

International Trade: the transfer of goods or services between countries in exchange for money.

Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): A non-governmental organization (NGO) is any non-profit, voluntary citizens’ group which is organized on a local, national or international level. Task-oriented and driven by people with a common interest.

Partition: The change of a nation’s political borders.

Protectionism: restricting trade between countries using trade barriers to allow preference to goods and services produced domestically.

Resolution: A written motion that is then approved and adopted by a governing organization to help end a disagreement.

Sovereignty: The authority of a state to govern itself or another state.

Sustainability: How biological systems remain diverse and productive indefinitely.

Supranational Organization: An international organization that is made up of multiple nations, working together for the purposes of protection or to expand their economies.

Terrorism: The threat or use of violence intended to bring about some type of change (i.e. political, religious or ideological).

Trade barriers: government-induced restrictions on international trade.

Quota: a limit on the quantity of a good that can be produced abroad and sold domestically.

Tariff: a tax that governments place on imported goods.

Subsidy: a form of financial aid or support given to an economic sector (or institution, business, or individual) generally with the aim of promoting economic and social policy.

Embargo: the partial or complete prohibition of commerce and trade with a particular country.

United Nation: The United Nations is an international organization founded in 1945 after WWII. It is currently made up of 193 Member States.  Each of the 193 Member States of the United Nations is a member of the General Assembly.  The main parts of the UN are the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Secretariat.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR): A declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10th, 1948 in Paris, France. In different articles, it outlines the basic rights that we, as humans, should all have.

Voluntary exchange: a trade that benefits both buyers and sellers.

Water Security: The reliable availability of an acceptable quantity and quality of water for health, livelihoods and production, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risks. A water secure world integrates a concern for the intrinsic value of water with a concern for its use for human survival and well-being.

World Bank: an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital and infrastructure programs.

World Trade Organization (WTO): an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a process for resolving disputes.