Deck 30: After the Fall: The Western World in a Global Age Since 1985

Question 1

All of the following led to decline in George W. Bush's popularity by his second term as president EXCEPT which one?

A)His strong support for environmental programs that were opposed by major business interests
B)The war in Iraq, which had bogged down in counterinsurgency operations
C)Tax cuts that primarily benefited the wealthy

Answer 1

His strong support for environmental programs that were opposed by major business interests

Question 2

All of the following are correct about the war in Iraq that began in 2003 EXCEPT which one?

A)The Bush administration claimed that Iraq's Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
B)Establishing a new government in Iraq was difficult because of differences among the Shi'ites, Sunnis, and Kurds.
C)The complete withdrawal of American troops was accomplished in 2009.

Answer 2

The complete withdrawal of American troops was accomplished in 2009.

Question 3

By the 1980s, Soviet problems included all EXCEPT which of the following?

A)A collapse of the space exploration program
B)A decline in the standard of living
C)Rigid, centralized planning

Answer 3

A collapse of the space exploration program

Question 4

By the end of his presidency, how was French president Francois Hollande perceived?

A)A right-minded leader who had not been able to solve some of France's enduring problems
B)A well-regarded leader who, despite his personal scandals, had improved the lives of many French people
C)A completely incapable leader who could not solve financial problems or respond to terrorist attacks

Question 5

All of the following are correct about the Bill Clinton presidency EXCEPT which one?

A)He presided over an economic revival.
B)He urged the adoption of a costly national health system.
C)He was able to reduce huge government budget deficits.

Question 6

Which of the following has been a continuing problem roiling Canadian politics for the past several decades?

A)Whether to always give support to U.S. foreign policy
B)The demand by many French-speaking Canadians that the province of Quebec become independent of the rest of Canada
C)The desire by many Canadians that Canada become a republic and sever all ties with the British monarchy

Question 7

All of the following are associated with the first term of Barack Obama's presidency EXCEPT which one?

A)An escalation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
B)Legislation aimed at regulating financial institutions
C)An emphasis on the need to combat global warming

Question 8

Which major issue has troubled Italian society in the 2000s and 2010s?

A)Islamic terrorism
B)Catholic fundamentalism
C)Political corruption

Question 9

Which of the following includes challenges facing the European Union in the twenty-first century?

A)The lack of a common currency, which prevents trade from flowing easily between the many countries of Europe
B)The enormous expense of maintaining a military to ensure collective security against Russia
C)That many Europeans remain committed to a national identity and do not see themselves as "Europeans"

Question 10

Under Perestroika, what did Mikhail Gorbachev intend to achieve?

A)To frighten the United States with more military spending
B)To create a more free and open political culture in the USSR
C)To restructure the economic and political systems

Question 11

British prime minister David Cameron formed a government after which of the following parties won the general election in 2010?

A)The Labor Party
B)The Conservative Party
C)The Liberal Democrats

Question 12

Which of the following parties won nearly 50 percent of the vote in East Germany's 1990 election?

A)The Popular Front
B)The Communists
C)The Christian Democrats

Question 13

Which of the following best describes why President Obama's efforts to address gun violence and climate change were stifled?

A)Significant political opposition from the Republican Party
B)Significant popular resistance to each initiative
C)Significant problems in Obama's proposed solutions that made them impracticable

Question 14

Which of the following best describes the origins of ISIS/ISIL?

A)It was originally a branch of al-Qaeda operating against the U.S. occupation of Iraq in the early 2010s.
B)It was a breakaway paramilitary force created in Syria for resisting Syrian rebels.
C)It was an insurgent group backed by Russia and Iran to force the United States out of the region.

Question 15

Bosnians, Croatians, and Serbs met in Dayton, Ohio, in 1995 for which of the following purposes?

A)To achieve, for the first time, a truly unified Yugoslavia
B)To negotiate an end to the war in Bosnia
C)To announce their application to the European Union

Question 16

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, where did the United States initially wage war?

A)Iraq
B)The Persian Gulf
C)Afghanistan

Question 17

The reunification of Germany was accomplished under whose leadership?

A)Willy Brandt
B)Conrad Adenauer
C)Helmut Kohl

Question 18

Which of the following was one of the underlying causes for the end of the Cold War?

A)The fall of Khrushchev in the Soviet Union and election of Reagan in the United States
B)Financial difficulties for both the superpowers and the unbearable expenses of the arms race
C)Peace movements in both countries

Question 19

George H. W. Bush was defeated for reelection in 1992 for all EXCEPT which of the following reasons?

A)The inability to win the Gulf War
B)Government budget deficits
C)A downturn in the economy

Question 20

Yugoslavia was divided into warring factions because of which of the following reasons?

A)Demands for ethnically distinct provinces
B)Differences of religion
C)Support for or opposition to maintaining communism

Question 21

After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russia struggled with all EXCEPT which of the following?

A)A coup led by former Soviet army officers, which took control of the country
B)Organized crime
C)An uprising in largely Muslim Chechnya

Question 22

How was the Soviet Empire dismantled?

Question 23

All of the following are true of Pope John Paul II EXCEPT which one?

A)He was the first non-Italian pope since the sixteenth century.
B)He held liberal views on birth control and women in the priesthood.
C)He condemned nuclear weapons and war.

Question 24

The signatories of the Paris Climate Accords of 2015 agreed to do which of the following things?

A)To look for ways their own countries could reduce emissions without causing political, economic, or social problems
B)To adopt rigid measures set down in Paris to aggressively tackle climate change, whatever the cost at home
C)To eliminate all fossil fuel production, intensive agriculture, and industry in their home countries

Question 25

How did the Berlin Wall come down?

Question 26

How did communism end in Eastern Europe?

Question 27

Which of the following is the best description of global warming?

A)A buildup of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide caused by emissions, which raises the global mean temperature of the earth, increasingly affecting its natural systems
B)A natural process of warming and cooling of the earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere that occurs in predictable and finite cycles every 25,000 years or so
C)A widely reported phenomenon that few scientists understand, leading to wild speculations and doomsday scenarios involving the collapse of the climate

Question 28

Europeans have responded to immigrant crises in all EXCEPT which of the following ways?

A)By forming extreme right-wing anti-immigrant political parties
B)By creating large, well-funded social programs to help immigrants thrive
C)By creating new, tougher immigration laws

Question 29

The collapse of the Soviet Union took place in which year?

A)1989
B)1991
C)1993

Question 30

Today, an increasing number of migrants are moving away from their homes for all EXCEPT which of the following reasons?

A)To flee wars, famines, or other resource insecurity
B)To build a better life for themselves and their families
C)To spread their culture and laws across the globe

Question 31

The collapse of the U.S. housing market in 2007-2008 led to which of the following?

A)A firm international agreement about how to manage the global economy
B)No real hardship except for the rich whose investments were wiped out
C)A worldwide recession that hit many of the world's poorest areas the hardest

Question 32

All of the following are examples of the women's movement EXCEPT which one?

A)Participation in antinuclear protests, such as at a U.S. missile base in Britain in 1982
B)The lack of success in repealing laws against birth control and abortion in Europe
C)The repeal of many laws against birth control and abortion in most European countries

Question 33

A transnational corporation is defined as which of the following?

A)A company that seeks to undermine national sovereignty
B)A company that pays no taxes because they have no headquarters
C)A company that has divisions in more than two countries

Question 34

Protestant fundamentalism generally includes all EXCEPT which of the following?

A)Opposition to Darwinian evolution
B)Literal interpretation of the Bible
C)Support of secularism

Question 35

What was the world's population in 2016?

A)7 billion
B)7)4 billion
C)8 billion

Question 36

What was the role of the New Congress of People's Deputies?

Question 37

Which of the following traditions is most essential to liberal democracy's success in the world today?

A)Active participation in the political process
B)Trusting that those in power will use it responsibly
C)Fully accepting the political beliefs of others

Question 38

Donald Trump's administration quickly discarded all EXCEPT which of the following long-standing principles of U.S. foreign policy?

A)Leadership roles in international organizations like NATO and efforts to fight climate change
B)Commitments to create and protect a global free trade regime with regional allies
C)A multilateral, coherent strategy for defending U.S. interests against traditional antagonists, such as Russia

Question 39

The austerity measures put into place in the wake of the global financial crisis resulted in all EXCEPT which of the following?

A)A speedy economic recovery for Europe and the United States
B)Mass protests
C)Reductions in pensions, wages, and health care services

Question 40

Which of the following artists was a Neo-Expressionist?

A)Anselm Kiefer
B)Pablo Picasso
C)Jackson Pollock

Question 41

What is the evidence that underpins the IPCC's climate change warnings?

Question 42

What is the "American Century"?

Question 43

What issues motivate today's women's movements?

Question 44

Under Vladimir Putin's presidency, all of the following occurred EXCEPT which one?

A)Power was centralized in the federal government.
B)Russia ended its aggressive foreign policy toward its neighbors.
C)As many as 40 percent of the population lived in poverty.

Question 45

What are the central tenets of existentialism?

Question 46

What are the key ideas of religious fundamentalism across the globe?

Question 47

How has the Internet changed from 2000 to the present day?

Question 48

How were Perestroika and Glasnost related? To what extent did they achieve their goals, and to what extent did they have unintended consequences?

Question 49

Why did Yugoslavia collapse in the 1980s?

Question 50

What is a "guest worker" in the European context?

Question 51

How did the 9/11 attacks change U.S. foreign policy?

Question 52

Describe the rise of ISIS.

Question 53

The first independence movements among the Soviet republics during Gorbachev's rule occurred in which country?

A)Afghanistan
B)Azerbaijan
C)Lithuania

Question 54

What were Angela Merkel's main initiatives in the early 2000s?

Question 55

Describe Boris Yeltsin's rise and fall. Were his policies successful in transforming Russia into a functional country? What were his most serious challenges?

Question 56

Why did Tony Blair win such a massive mandate in the 1997 general election?

Question 57

How has Canadian politics shifted in the early twenty-first century?

Question 58

What kinds of cooperations does the present-day European Union entail?

Question 59

How have emigrant crises affected French politics?

Question 60

What is the role of the IMF?

Question 61

Describe the origins, conduct, and results of the wars in Yugoslavia.

Question 62

Which is more important to the European Union: economic, political, or cultural integration? Why?

Question 63

How have contemporary military interventions helped or hindered global terrorism? What efforts are currently ongoing to combat the terrorist threat?

Question 64

What similarities and differences exist between French and Italian politics in the 2000s?

Question 65

Who has globalization benefited the most? Who has it harmed the most? Why?

Question 66

How has the role of women in Western countries changed from the twentieth to the twenty-first century?

Question 67

The brutal dictatorial Communist government of Nicolae Ceausescu came to an end in 1989 in which country?

A)Czechoslovakia
B)Romania
C)East Germany

Question 68

Describe the process of German reunification.

Question 69

In 1988, the first free parliamentary elections to occur in Eastern Europe for forty years took place in which country?

A)Hungary
B)Austria
C)Poland

Question 70

What is the cause of global warming and climate change? Why has this cause been so difficult to address in the contemporary world?

Question 71

How have organized churches responded to the challenges of the twenty-first century? How effective have those responses been?

Question 72

How has terrorism challenged U.S. foreign and domestic policy?

Question 73

How did the fall of communism benefit Eastern Europe? How did it cause new problems?

Question 74

How have motivations for migration changed from the twentieth to the twenty-first century? How have they remained constant?

Question 75

Summarize the arguments of either side of the Brexit referendum of 2016.

Question 76

Which event had the largest effect on the contemporary United States: the 9/11 attacks or the global financial crisis of 2008? Why?

Question 77

Dmitry Medvedev was succeeded as president of Russia in 2012 by whom?

A)Boris Yeltsin
B)Nikolai Patrushev
C)Vladimir Putin

Question 78

Who replaced the Communist government to become the leader of Czechoslovakia in 1990?

A)Havel
B)Husák
C)Dubček

Question 79

How has the Internet affected twenty-first-century Western politics, culture, and society? Has it been overall beneficial or detrimental?

Question 80

Why is Donald Trump referred to as a populist? Is this label justified?