1.
Avenue Louise
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Avenue Louise or Louizalaan is a major thoroughfare in Brussels. It runs southeast from Place Louise to the Bois de la Cambre, Avenue Louise is one of the most prestigious and expensive streets in Brussels. The construction of Avenue Louise was commissioned in 1847 as an avenue bordered by chestnut trees that would allow easy access to the popular recreational area of the Bois de la Cambre. It was also to be the first Haussmann-esque artery of the city, the name was chosen in honor of King Leopold IIs eldest daughter, Princess Louise. However, fierce resistance to the project was put up by the town of Ixelles - then, as now, after years of fruitless negotiations, Brussels finally annexed the narrow band of land needed for the avenue plus the Bois de la Cambre itself in 1864. That decision accounts for the shape of todays City of Brussels. During World War II, following the German invasion of Belgium, the Nazi security organisation, the Sicherheitspolizei-Sicherheitsdienst, of which the Gestapo was a part, set up their Brussels headquarters on Avenue Louise. They occupied numbers 347,418,453 and 510, initially their headquarters were in number 453, the Résidence Belvédère. On 20 January 1943, Jean de Sélys Longchamps, a Belgian who had become a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Following this attack, the SD moved their headquarters to number 347 Avenue Louise, the cellars at this address were used to detain and interrogate captured members of the Belgian resistance. The torture which took place here brought the name of Avenue Louise considerable infamy at the time, a monument to Baron de Selys Longchamps now stands in front of 453 Avenue Louise. From north to south, notable landmarks include, Louise Square, the Law Courts of Brussels are nearby. Stéphanie Square, another extremely busy square surrounded by luxury shops, the tree-bordered part of the avenue begins here. The Louise Tower, also known as the Generali Tower, one of the tallest office buildings in Brussels, the intersection with the Chaussée de Vleurgat / Vleurgatsteenweg dominated by the Blue Tower skyscraper. The scenic Kings Garden, a garden descending toward the nearby Ixelles Ponds, olivier Strebelles 16-ton bronze sculpture Le Phénix 44 which commemorates the anniversary of the liberation of Brussels, which stands athwart the roundabout at Kings Garden. The Sélys Longchamps Square, which features several statues, the entrance to the La Cambre Abbey, a roundabout flanked by two twin neoclassical pavilions ending the avenue. Beyond it lies the Bois de la Cambre, nearby is the Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, Brussels part of the Church of England. Tramway line 94 runs the length of the avenue, all on segregated track except in the short goulet Louise section
2.
Brussels
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Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels which is the capital of Belgium. The Brussels-Capital Region is a part of both the French Community of Belgium and the Flemish Community, but is separate from the region of Flanders or Wallonia. The region has a population of 1.2 million and an area with a population of over 1.8 million. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions, the secretariat of the Benelux and the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization are also located in Brussels. Today, it is considered an Alpha global city, historically a Dutch-speaking city, Brussels has seen a language shift to French from the late 19th century onwards. Today, the majority language is French, and the Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. All road signs, street names, and many advertisements and services are shown in both languages, Brussels is increasingly becoming multilingual with increasing numbers of migrants, expatriates and minority groups speaking their own languages. The most common theory of the origin of Brussels name is that it derives from the Old Dutch Broekzele or Broeksel, meaning marsh, Saint Vindicianus, the bishop of Cambrai made the first recorded reference to the place Brosella in 695 when it was still a hamlet. The origin of the settlement that was to become Brussels lies in Saint Gaugericus construction of a chapel on an island in the river Senne around 580. The official founding of Brussels is usually situated around 979, when Duke Charles of Lower Lotharingia transferred the relics of Saint Gudula from Moorsel to the Saint Gaugericus chapel, Charles would construct the first permanent fortification in the city, doing so on that same island. Lambert I of Leuven, Count of Leuven gained the County of Brussels around 1000 by marrying Charles daughter, as it grew to a population of around 30,000, the surrounding marshes were drained to allow for further expansion. The Counts of Leuven became Dukes of Brabant at about this time, in the 13th century, the city got its first walls. After the construction of the city walls in the early 13th century, to let the city expand, a second set of walls was erected between 1356 and 1383. Today, traces of it can still be seen, mostly because the small ring, Brabant had lost its independence, but Brussels became the Princely Capital of the prosperous Low Countries, and flourished. In 1516 Charles V, who had been heir of the Low Countries since 1506, was declared King of Spain in St. Michael and St. Gudula Cathedral in Brussels. Upon the death of his grandfather, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor in 1519 and it was in the Palace complex at Coudenberg that Charles V abdicated in 1555. This impressive palace, famous all over Europe, had expanded since it had first become the seat of the Dukes of Brabant. In 1695, during the Nine Years War, King Louis XIV of France sent troops to bombard Brussels with artillery, together with the resulting fire, it was the most destructive event in the entire history of Brussels
3.
Belgium
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Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a sovereign state in Western Europe bordered by France, the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg, and the North Sea. It is a small, densely populated country which covers an area of 30,528 square kilometres and has a population of about 11 million people. Additionally, there is a group of German-speakers who live in the East Cantons located around the High Fens area. Historically, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were known as the Low Countries, the region was called Belgica in Latin, after the Roman province of Gallia Belgica. From the end of the Middle Ages until the 17th century, today, Belgium is a federal constitutional monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. It is divided into three regions and three communities, that exist next to each other and its two largest regions are the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders in the north and the French-speaking southern region of Wallonia. The Brussels-Capital Region is a bilingual enclave within the Flemish Region. A German-speaking Community exists in eastern Wallonia, Belgiums linguistic diversity and related political conflicts are reflected in its political history and complex system of governance, made up of six different governments. Upon its independence, declared in 1830, Belgium participated in the Industrial Revolution and, during the course of the 20th century, possessed a number of colonies in Africa. This continuing antagonism has led to several far-reaching reforms, resulting in a transition from a unitary to a federal arrangement during the period from 1970 to 1993. Belgium is also a member of the Eurozone, NATO, OECD and WTO. Its capital, Brussels, hosts several of the EUs official seats as well as the headquarters of major international organizations such as NATO. Belgium is also a part of the Schengen Area, Belgium is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy and is categorized as very high in the Human Development Index. A gradual immigration by Germanic Frankish tribes during the 5th century brought the area under the rule of the Merovingian kings, a gradual shift of power during the 8th century led the kingdom of the Franks to evolve into the Carolingian Empire. Many of these fiefdoms were united in the Burgundian Netherlands of the 14th and 15th centuries, the Eighty Years War divided the Low Countries into the northern United Provinces and the Southern Netherlands. The latter were ruled successively by the Spanish and the Austrian Habsburgs and this was the theatre of most Franco-Spanish and Franco-Austrian wars during the 17th and 18th centuries. The reunification of the Low Countries as the United Kingdom of the Netherlands occurred at the dissolution of the First French Empire in 1815, although the franchise was initially restricted, universal suffrage for men was introduced after the general strike of 1893 and for women in 1949. The main political parties of the 19th century were the Catholic Party, French was originally the single official language adopted by the nobility and the bourgeoisie
4.
President (corporate title)
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The President is a leader of an organization, company, community, club, trade union, university or other group. In many organizations, it is the legally recognized highest titled corporate officer, the president may also be the chairman. The relationship between the president and the Chief Executive Officer varies, depending on the structure of the specific organization, in a similar vein to the Chief Operating Officer, the title of corporate President as a separate position is also loosely defined. The powers of the president vary widely across organizations and such powers come from specific authorization in the bylaws, originally, the term president was used to designate someone who presided over a meeting, and was used in the same way that foreman or overseer is used now. It has now come to mean chief officer in terms of administrative or executive duties. In addition to the administrative or executive duties in organizations, the president has the duties of presiding over meetings, in committees or small boards, the president votes along with the other members. However, in assemblies or larger boards, the president should vote only when it can affect the result, at a meeting, the president only has one vote. The powers of the president vary widely across organizations, the amount of power given to the president depends on the type of organization, its structure, and the rules it has created for itself. If the president exceeds the given authority, engages in misconduct, or fails to perform the duties, such procedures may include censure, suspension, or removal from office. The rules of the organization would provide details on who can perform these disciplinary procedures. Usually, whoever appointed or elected the president has the power to discipline this officer, some organizations may have a position of President-Elect in addition to the position of President. Generally the membership of the organization elects a President-Elect and when the term of the President-Elect is complete, some organizations may have a position of Immediate Past President in addition to the position of President. In those organizations, when the term of the President is complete, the organization can have such a position only if the bylaws provide it. The duties of such a position would also have to be provided in the bylaws, riding Shotgun, The Role of the COO. National Association of Parliamentarians®, Education Committee, independence, MO, National Association of Parliamentarians®
5.
Mark Malloch Brown, Baron Malloch-Brown
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He was Minister of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British government with responsibility for Africa, Asia and the United Nations. Following his appointment to government, Malloch Brown was created a peer on 9 July 2007 as Baron Malloch-Brown. Malloch Brown was previously at the World Bank, the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme and he had previously worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He is also a former journalist for The Economist, development specialist and he has served as Chair of the Royal African Society, among other non-governmental and private sector roles, such as membership of the Executive Committee of the International Crisis Group. Malloch Brown was born in England in 1953 to a South African diplomat who had been exiled and he was educated at Marlborough College, and earned a First Class Honours Degree in History from Magdalene College, Cambridge and a masters degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan. He is a child, but has four children with his wife. He was the correspondent at The Economist between 1977 and 1979. In this period the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees was awarded the 1981 Nobel Peace Prize, Malloch Brown contemplated running for the SDP in the 1983 UK General election but was not selected as a candidate. In 1983 Malloch Brown returned to The Economist as the editor of the Economist Development Report. Malloch Brown was the international partner at the US-based Sawyer-Miller Group communications consultancy from 1986 to 1994. The Group was among the first communication consultants to use US-style election campaign methods for foreign governments, companies, Malloch Brown worked extensively on privatisation and other economic reform issues with leaders in Eastern Europe and Russia. Malloch Brown focused much of his public relations energies on advising politicians in Latin America, in 1989 Malloch Brown advised Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozadas presidential campaign in Bolivia. In Peru, he assisted Mario Vargas Llosa with his 1990 presidential campaign), though Vargas Llosa did not heed his advice, in Chile, Malloch Brown advised the opposition in its successful challenge to former dictator Augusto Pinochet. On election day, Malloch Brown wrote Aquinos victory speech which she recited days before voting results were to be released since her campaign assumed that Marcos claim victory as well. Since then, it has reported that Malloch Brown has formed a close relationship with the Aquino family. In 1994 Malloch Brown joined the World Bank as Vice-President for External Affairs, to his credit, the institution gradually gained a reputation as a listening bank, unlike its more aloof sister institution, the International Monetary Fund. In July 1999 he moved back to the United Nations as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, remaining in this position until August 2005. In late 2002, Malloch Brown offered to assist talks between Hugo Chavezs Bolivarian government and the opposition, who was seeking to begin the process of attempting to recall Chávez a year later
6.
Nonprofit organization
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A nonprofit organization is an organization whose purpose is something other than making a profit. A nonprofit organization is dedicated to furthering a particular social cause or advocating for a particular point of view. This is known as the non-distribution constraint, the decision to adopt a nonprofit legal structure is one that will often have taxation implications, particularly where the nonprofit seeks income tax exemption, charitable status and so on. The terms nonprofit and not-for-profit are not consistently differentiated across jurisdictions, in laymans terms they are usually equivalent in concept, although in various jurisdictions there are accounting and legal differences. The nonprofit landscape is varied, although many people have come to associate NPOs with charitable organizations. Although charities do make up an often high-profile or visible aspect of the sector, overall, they tend to be either member-serving or community-serving. e. It could be argued many nonprofits sit across both camps, at least in terms of the impact they make. For example, the support group that provides a lifeline to those with a particular condition or disease could be deemed to be serving its members. Many NPOs use the model of a bottom line in that furthering their cause is more important than making a profit. Although NPOs are permitted to generate revenues, they must be retained by the organization for its self-preservation, expansion. NPOs have controlling members or a board of directors, many have paid staff including management, whereas others employ unpaid volunteers and executives who work with or without compensation. In some countries, where there is a fee, in general. The extent to which an NPO can generate surplus revenues may be constrained or use of surplus revenues may be restricted. Some NPOs may also be a charity or service organization, they may be organized as a corporation or as a trust. Their goal is not to be successful in terms of wealth, NPOs have a wide diversity of structures and purposes. Some of the above must be expressed in the charter of establishment or constitution. Others may be provided by the authority at each particular jurisdiction. While affiliations will not affect a legal status, they may be taken into consideration by legal proceedings as an indication of purpose, most countries have laws that regulate the establishment and management of NPOs and that require compliance with corporate governance regimes
7.
Non-governmental organization
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A non-governmental organization is a not-for-profit organization that is independent from states and international governmental organizations. They are usually funded by donations but some avoid formal funding altogether and are run primarily by volunteers, NGOs are highly diverse groups of organizations engaged in a wide range of activities, and take different forms in different parts of the world. Some may have charitable status, while others may be registered for tax exemption based on recognition of social purposes, others may be fronts for political, religious, or other interests. The number of NGOs worldwide is estimated to be 3.7 million, India is estimated to have had around 2 million NGOs in 2009, just over one NGO per 600 Indians, and many times the number of primary schools and primary health centres in India. China is estimated to have approximately 440,000 officially registered NGOs, NGOs are difficult to define, and the term NGO is not always used consistently. In some countries the term NGO is applied to an organization that in another country would be called an NPO, there are many different classifications of NGO in use. The most common focus is on orientation and level of operation, an NGOs orientation refers to the type of activities it takes on. These activities might include human rights, environmental, improving health, an NGOs level of operation indicates the scale at which an organization works, such as local, regional, national, or international. The term non-governmental organization was first coined in 1945, when the United Nations was created, later the term became used more widely. One characteristic these diverse organizations share is that their non-profit status means they are not hindered by short-term financial objectives. Accordingly, they are able to devote themselves to issues which occur across longer time horizons, such as change, malaria prevention. Public surveys reveal that NGOs often enjoy a degree of public trust. NGO/GRO types can be understood by their orientation and level of how they operate, charitable orientation often involves a top-down paternalistic effort with little participation by the beneficiaries. It includes NGOs with activities directed toward meeting the needs of the poor people, in the classical community development project, participation begins with the need definition and continues into the planning and implementation stages. There is maximum involvement of the beneficiaries with NGOs acting as facilitators, community-based organizations arise out of peoples own initiatives. They can be responsible for raising the consciousness of the poor, helping them to understand their rights in accessing needed services. City-wide organizations include organizations such as chambers of commerce and industry, coalitions of business, ethnic or educational groups, national NGOs include national organizations such as the YMCAs/YWCAs, professional associations and similar groups. Some have state and city branches and assist local NGOs and they can be responsible for funding local NGOs, institutions and projects and implementing projects
8.
Thein Sein
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Thein Sein is a former Burmese politician and retired general in the Myanmar Army who served as the 8th President of Myanmar from 2011 to 2016. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2007 to 2011, and is considered by many in and outside Myanmar as a moderate and reformist in the post-junta government. Thein Sein was born in Kyonku, British Burma, a small Irrawaddy delta village near Hainggyi Island in what is now Ngapudaw Township to Maung Phyo and he was the youngest of three children. His parents were farmers, and his father made a living carrying cargo at the river jetty. Thein Seins father Maung Phyo became a Buddhist monk 10 years after his wifes death, Thein Sein graduated from the 9th intake of the Defence Services Academy with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968, becoming a second lieutenant afterward. Throughout Thein Seins four-decade long military career, he was considered a bureaucrat, in 1988, he served as a major for Sagaing Divisions 55th Light Infantry Division and later served as a commander for Sagaing Divisions 89th Infantry Battalion in Kalay Township. The following year, he studied at the Command and General Staff College in Kalaw, by 1991, he had returned to Yangon, after being promoted to the rank of colonel and 1st Grade General Staff Officer in the War Office. He was then promoted to Brigadier General, but remained at his position in the War Office, in 1995, he was recruited as the commander of Yangon Divisions Military Operations Command 4 in Hmawbi. A year later, in 1996, he was appointed to lead the new Triangle Regional Military Command in Kyaingtong, Shan State, in 1997, he became a member of the State Peace and Development Council and was appointed as Secretary-2 in 2003. He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General that year, after Khin Nyunt was deposed and Soe Win became Prime Minister in 2004, he was promoted to Secretary-1 and promoted to General in late 2004. Thein Sein was appointed in April 2007 by the ruling military junta as interim prime minister, replacing Soe Win. He was formally appointed as Soe Wins permanent successor on 24 October 2007 after Soe Wins death on 12 October 2007 and he held the position of first secretary in the ruling State Peace and Development Council junta. He was the countrys fourth-highest ranking general, and also served as the chairman of the government-sponsored National Convention Convening Commission, Thein Sein carried out high-level negotiations with Bangladesh and Cambodia. In 2007, sometime after his appointment as prime minister. On his first official visit outside Myanmar as prime minister, Thein Sein carried out negotiations with Laos, Vietnam. In the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008, he led the National Disaster Preparedness Central Committee as chairman and was criticised for the governments systematic blocking of relief efforts. On 29 April 2010, he retired from the military, along with 22 other military officials, to lead the Union Solidarity and Development Party as a civilian. Thein Sein ran against National Unity Party candidate Kyaw Aye during the election and he purportedly won 91. 2% of the votes
9.
Human Rights Watch
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Human Rights Watch is an American-founded international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. C. and Zurich. The organizations annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, Human Rights Watch was founded by Robert L. Bernstein as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the former Soviet Unions compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of naming and shaming abusive governments through media coverage. Americas Watch was founded in 1981 while bloody civil wars engulfed Central America, asia Watch, Africa Watch, and Middle East Watch were added to what was known as The Watch Committees. In 1988, all of these committees were united under one umbrella to form Human Rights Watch, pursuant to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch opposes violations of what it considers basic human rights. This includes capital punishment and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, HRW advocates freedoms in connection with fundamental human rights, such as freedom of religion and freedom of the press. These reports are used as the basis for drawing attention to abuses and pressuring governments. HRW has documented and reported violations of the laws of war. Human Rights Watch also supports writers worldwide, who are being persecuted for their work and are in need of financial assistance. The Hellman/Hammett grants are financed by the estate of the playwright Lillian Hellman in funds set up in her name and that of her long-time companion, the novelist Dashiell Hammett. In addition to providing assistance, the Hellman/Hammett grants help raise international awareness of activists who are being silenced for speaking out in defense of human rights. Each year, Human Rights Watch presents the Human Rights Defenders Award to activists around the world who demonstrate leadership, the award winners work closely with HRW in investigating and exposing human rights abuses. Human Rights Watch was one of six international NGOs that founded the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers in 1998, Human Rights Watch is a founding member of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange, a global network of non-governmental organizations that monitor censorship worldwide. It also co-founded the Cluster Munition Coalition, which brought about an international convention banning the weapons, HRW employs more than 275 staff—country experts, lawyers, journalists, and academics – and operates in more than 90 countries around the world. The current executive director of HRW is Kenneth Roth, who has held the position since 1993, Roth conducted investigations on abuses in Poland after martial law was declared 1981. He later focused on Haiti, which had just emerged from the Duvalier dictatorship, roth’s awareness of the importance of human rights began with stories his father had told about escaping Nazi Germany in 1938. Roth graduated from Yale Law School and Brown University, HRW has been criticized for perceived bias by the national governments it has investigated for human rights abuses, and by NGO Monitor, and HRWs founder, and former Chairman, Robert L. Bernstein. Bias allegations include undue influence by United States government policy, HRW has routinely publicly responded to, and often rejected, criticism of its reporting and findings
10.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
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The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is a foreign-policy think tank with centers in Washington, D. C. Moscow, Beirut, Beijing, Brussels, and New Delhi, the organization describes itself as being dedicated to advancing cooperation between nations and promoting active international engagement by the United States. Founded in 1910 by Andrew Carnegie, its work is not formally associated with any political party, in the University of Pennsylvanias 2015 Global Go To Think Tanks Report, Carnegie is ranked the third most influential think tank in the world, after the Brookings Institution and Chatham House. Its headquarters building, prominently located on the Embassy Row section of Massachusetts Avenue, was completed in 1989 on a design by architecture firm Smith and it also hosts the embassy of Papua New Guinea in the U. S. The President of Carnegies Board of Trustees is Harvey V. Fineberg, Andrew Carnegie, like other leading internationalists of his day, believed that war could be eliminated by stronger international laws and organizations. I am drawn more to this cause than to any, he wrote in 1907, Carnegies single largest commitment in this field was his creation of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. On his seventy-fifth birthday, November 25,1910, Andrew Carnegie announced the establishment of the Endowment with a gift of $10 million worth of first mortgage bonds, paying a 5% rate of interest. The interest income generated from these bonds was to be used to fund a new think tank dedicated to advancing the cause of world peace. Carnegie chose longtime adviser Elihu Root, Senator from New York and former Secretary of War and of State, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1912, Root served until 1925. Carnegie is often remembered for having built Carnegie libraries, which were a major recipient of his largesse, the libraries were usually funded not by the Endowment but by other Carnegie trusts, operating mainly in the English-speaking world. However, after World War I the Endowment built libraries in Belgium, France, on July 14,1923, the Hague Academy of International Law, an initiative of the Endowment, was formally opened in the Peace Palace at The Hague. The Peace Palace had been built by the Carnegie Foundation in 1913 to house the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in 1925, Nicholas Murray Butler succeeded Elihu Root as president of the Endowment. For his work, including his involvement with the Kellogg–Briand Pact, in November 1944, the Carnegie Endowment published Raphael Lemkins Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, Laws of Occupation—Analysis of Government—Proposals for Redress. The work was the first to bring the genocide into the global lexicon. As chairman, Shotwell pushed for an amendment to establish a permanent United Nations Commission on Human Rights, in December 1945, Butler stepped down after twenty years as president and chairman of the board of trustees. Butler was the last living member of the board selected by Andrew Carnegie in 1910. Alger Hiss briefly succeeded Butler as president of the Endowment in 1946 but resigned in 1949 after being denounced as a communist, Hiss was replaced in the interim by James T. Shotwell. In 1947, the Carnegie Endowments headquarters were moved closer to the United Nations in New York City, in 1949, the Washington branch was shuttered
11.
Morton I. Abramowitz
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Morton Isaac Abramowitz is an American diplomat and former State Department official. Among other roles he served as US Ambassador to Thailand 1978 to 1981, Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research 1985 to 1989, after retiring from the State Department in 1991, his roles have included the Presidency of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Abramowitz currently serves as co-chair for the Bipartisan Policy Centers Turkey Initiative, Abramowitz was born to a Jewish family, in Lakewood Township, New Jersey on January 20,1933. He was educated at Stanford University, receiving a B. A. in 1953 and he then attended Harvard University, earning an M. A. in 1955. In 1956, Abramowitz joined the United States Department of Labor, first as a management intern, in 1959, he joined the United States Department of State as a program analyst posted in Taipei. From 1960 to 1962, he was Consular-Economic Officer in Taipei and he was then posted as a political officer in Hong Kong from 1963 to 1966. In 1978, President of the United States Jimmy Carter named Abramowitz United States Ambassador to Thailand, in 1983, President Ronald Reagan named Abramowitz U. S. Ambassador to the Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions talks in Vienna. President Reagan nominated Abramowitz as Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research in 1985, in 1989, President George H. W. Bush named Abramowitz United States Ambassador to Turkey, a post he held until 1991. In 1990, he was awarded the rank of Career Ambassador, Abramowitz retired from government service in 1991, to become the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and he retired from that position in 1997. Since then, he has been a Senior Fellow of The Century Foundation and he is a long-time board member of the International Rescue Committee. Abramowitz played a role in the foundation of the International Crisis Group. Abramowitz served for nine years on the board of the National Endowment for Democracy, Abramowitz is married to Sheppie Glass Abramowitz, the sister of composer Philip Glass. Sheppie Abramowitz spent her career advocating on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers for the International Rescue Committee, the couple have two adult children. Michael Abramowitz is a reporter and editor at the Washington Post. He is married to Susan Baer, formerly a journalist at the Baltimore Sun, moving the Glacier, The Two Koreas and the Powers International Institute for Strategic Studies,1971 East Asian Actors and Issues China, Can We Have A Policy. CS1 maint, Uses editors parameter from History Commons Profile from the Century Foundation NNDB profile
12.
World Bank
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The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries of the world for capital programs. It comprises two institutions, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the International Development Association, the World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system. The World Banks stated official goal is the reduction of poverty, the president of the World Bank is, traditionally, an American. The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D. C. and work closely with each other, although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations. Before 1974 the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small, the Banks staff were aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria, the first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Banks president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile, the loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed, the French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government - the so-called tripartisme. Within hours, the loan to France was approved, when the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries, in 1960, the International Development Association was formed, providing soft loans to developing countries. From 1974 to 1980 the bank concentrated on meeting the needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and these changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara, who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara implored bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the banks that had been the primary sources of funding. Rotberg used the bond market to increase the capital available to the bank. One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an annual rate of 20%
13.
Sarajevo
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Sarajevo is the capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its current administrative limits. The Sarajevo metropolitan area, including Sarajevo Canton and East Sarajevo is home to 688,384 inhabitants, nestled within the greater Sarajevo valley of Bosnia, it is surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans. Due to its long and rich history of religious and cultural variety and it is the only major European city to have a mosque, Catholic church, Orthodox church and synagogue within the same neighbourhood. Although settlement in the area back to prehistoric times, the modern city arose as an Ottoman stronghold in the 15th century. Sarajevo has attracted international attention several times throughout its history, in 1885, Sarajevo was the first city in Europe and the second city in the world to have a full-time electric tram network running through the city, following San Francisco. For nearly four years, from 1992 to 1996, the city suffered the longest siege of a city in the history of warfare during the Bosnian War. Sarajevo has been undergoing reconstruction, and is the fastest growing city in Bosnia. The travel guide series, Lonely Planet, has named Sarajevo as the 43rd best city in the world, in 2011, Sarajevo was nominated to be the European Capital of Culture in 2014 and will be hosting the European Youth Olympic Festival in 2019. The earliest known name for the large central Bosnian region of todays Sarajevo is Vrhbosna, Sarajevo is a slavicized word based on saray, the Turkish word for palace. The evo portion may come from the term saray ovası first recorded in 1455, the first mention of name Sarajevo was in 1507 letter written by Feriz Beg. The earliest is Šeher, which is the term Isa-Beg Ishaković used to describe the town he was going to build and it is a Turkish word meaning an advanced city of key importance which in turn comes from Persian, شهر shahr. As Sarajevo developed, numerous nicknames came from comparisons to other cities in the Islamic world, the most popular of these was European Jerusalem. Some argue that a correct translation of saray is government office or house. Saray is a word in Turkish for a palace or mansion. Sarajevo is located near the center of the triangular-shaped Bosnia-Herzegovina. It is situated 518 meters above sea level and lies in the Sarajevo valley, the valley itself once formed a vast expanse of greenery, but gave way to urban expansion and development in the post-World War II era. The city is surrounded by forested hills and five major mountains. The last four are known as the Olympic Mountains of Sarajevo
14.
Bosnian War
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The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following a number of violent incidents in early 1992, the war is commonly viewed as having started on 6 April 1992, the war ended on 14 December 1995. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia and this was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian, Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia, Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio and were finalised on 21 November 1995. According to a report compiled by the UN, and chaired by M, the report echoed conclusions published by a Central Intelligence Agency estimate in 1995. By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs,12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, the most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, in addition, an estimated 12, 000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak. There is debate over the date of the Bosnian War. Mulaj reports that Misha Glenny gives a date of 22 March, Tom Gallagher gives 2 April, while Mary Kaldor and Laura Silber, philip Hammond claimed that the most common view is that the war started on 6 April 1992. The Sijekovac killings of Serbs took place on 26 March and the Bijeljina massacre on 1–2 April. Some Bosniaks consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia as a result of the weakening of the system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, meanwhile, ethnic nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, after violence broke out in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim,32. 5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav. In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution which allowed the government of Serbia to dominate the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina
15.
George Soros
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George Soros is a Hungarian-American investor, business magnate, and philanthropist. Soros is considered by some to be one of the most successful investors in the world, as of February 2017, Soros has a net worth of $25.2 billion making him one of the 30 richest people in the world. Born in Budapest, he escaped Nazi Germany-occupied Hungary and emigrated to England in 1947 and he attended the London School of Economics graduating with a bachelors and eventually a masters in philosophy. He began his business career by taking jobs at merchant banks before starting his first hedge fund, Double Eagle. Profits from his first fund furnished the money to start Soros Fund Management, his second hedge fund. Double Eagle was renamed the Quantum Fund and was the principal firm Soros advised, at its founding, the Quantum Fund had $12 million in assets under management, and as of 2011 it had $25 billion, the majority of his overall net worth. He is a supporter of American progressive and American liberal political causes and dispenses his donations through his foundation. Between 1979 and 2011 Soros donated more than $11 billion to philanthropic causes. Soros was born in Budapest in the Kingdom of Hungary to a well-to-do non-observant Jewish family, Soros has described his home as anti-Semitic. His mother Elizabeth came from a family owned a thriving silk shop. His father Tivadar was a lawyer and had been a prisoner of war during and after World War I until he escaped from Russia, Tivadar was an Esperantist writer and taught Soros to speak Esperanto in his childhood. In 1936 Soross family changed their name from the German-Jewish Schwartz to Soros, Tivadar liked the new name because it is a palindrome and because of its meaning. In Hungarian, soros means next in line, or designated successor, Soros was 13 years old in March 1944 when Nazi Germany occupied Hungary. Jewish children were barred from attending school by the Nazis, and Soros, Soros later described this time to writer Michael Lewis, The Jewish Council asked the little kids to hand out the deportation notices. I was told to go to the Jewish Council, and there I was given these small slips of paper. I took this piece of paper to my father and this was a list of Hungarian Jewish lawyers. He said, You deliver the slips of paper and tell the people if they report they will be deported. Soros did not return to that job, his family purchased documents to say that they were Christians, thereby allowing them to survive the war
16.
Stephen J. Solarz
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Stephen Joshua Solarz was a United States Congressional Representative from New York. Born in Manhattan, New York City, Solarz attended public schools in New York City. He graduated from Midwood High School, in Brooklyn, NY. in 1958, and later received a B. A. from Brandeis University in 1962, Solarz taught political science at Brooklyn College from 1967–1968. In 1966, Solarz was the manager for an anti-war campaign. He used that experience to make a run for the State Assembly two years later. He was a member of the New York State Assembly from 1969 to 1974, in the 1973 Democratic primary, Solarz ran against Sebastian Leone for Brooklyn borough president, and lost. That was not unexpected, Solarz had run mostly for improved name recognition and to make political, in 1974, he was a delegate to the Democratic National Mid-term Convention. In September 1974, Solarz defeated incumbent Democrat Bertram L. Podell in the Democratic primary for the New York 13th District, at the time, Podell was under federal indictment, he was later convicted. In November 1974, Solarz was elected to the U. S. House of Representatives, to the 94th Congress and he was re-elected eight more times, serving until January 3,1993. On July 18,1980, Solarz became the first American public official to visit North Korea since the end of the Korean War, and the first to meet with Kim Il-sung. In the 1980s, he chaired the Asian and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and he is remembered for his leadership on the Philippines. He left Manila just as Benigno S. Aquino, Jr. was coming home to challenge President Ferdinand E. Marcos, following Aquinos assassination, Solarz returned to Manila for the funeral and proceeded to push the Reagan administration to distance itself from the Marcos government. Shortly after Marcos left for exile in Hawaii, Solarz was visiting at one of the opulent palaces and he worked closely with Aquinos widow, Corazon, who became president, and who dubbed him the Lafayette of the Philippines. Solarz had strong ties to India and was held in esteem by Indian leaders across the political spectrum. His motivations were partly driven by the presence of prosperous Indian Americans in his district and he received bipartisan credit for having helped set the stage for substantial improvements in U. S. -India relations since the 1990s. In 1982 and 1986, Solarz met with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in 1998 he led a group of neoconservatives urging President Bill Clinton to overthrow him. The round of redistricting following the 1990 Census divided his district into six pieces, Solarz entered the race damaged by the House banking scandal, having written 743 overdrafts. Solarz was defeated in the Democratic primary by Nydia Velazquez, ironically, neither Weiss nor Green was re-elected, as Weiss died before the election and was replaced on the ballot by Jerrold Nadler, while Green was defeated by Democrat Carolyn Maloney
17.
Martti Ahtisaari
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Martti Oiva Kalevi Ahtisaari is a Finnish politician, the tenth President of Finland, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and United Nations diplomat and mediator, noted for his international peace work. In October 2008, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts on several continents, the Nobel statement said that Ahtisaari has played a prominent role in resolving many conflicts in Namibia, Aceh, Indonesia, Kosovo and Iraq, among other areas. Martti Ahtisaari was born in Viipuri, Finland and his father, Oiva Ahtisaari took Finnish citizenship in 1929 and changed his surname from Adolfsen in 1937. The Continuation War took Marttis father to the front as an NCO army mechanic, while his mother, Tyyne, Kuopio was where Ahtisaari spent most of his childhood, eventually attending the Kuopion Lyseo high school. In 1952, Martti Ahtisaari moved to Oulu with his family to seek employment, There he continued his education in high school, graduating in 1952. He also joined the local YMCA, after completing his military service, he began to study through a distance-learning course at Oulu teachers college. He was able to live at home while attending the course which enabled him to qualify as a primary-school teacher in 1959. Besides his native language, Finnish, Ahtisaari speaks Swedish, French, English, in 1960, he moved to Karachi, Pakistan, to lead the Swedish Pakistani Institutes physical education training establishment, where he became accustomed to a more international environment. In addition to managing the home, Ahtisaaris job involved training teachers. He returned to Finland in 1963, and became active in non-governmental organizations responsible for aid to developing countries and he joined the international students organisation AIESEC, where he discovered new passions about diversity and diplomacy. In 1965, he joined the Ministry for Foreign Ministry of Finland in its Bureau for International Development Aid, in 1968, he married Eeva Irmeli Hyvärinen. The couple has one son, Marko Ahtisaari, a noted musician, Ahtisaari spent several years as a diplomatic representative from Finland. He served as Finlands Ambassador to Tanzania from 1973 to 1977, from 1977 to 1981, he served as United Nations Commissioner for Namibia, working to secure the independence of Namibia from the Republic of South Africa. Ahtisaari took advice from British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who was visiting the region at the time, a period of intense fighting ensued when at least 375 SWAPO insurgents were killed. Perhaps because of his reluctance to authorise this SADF deployment, Ahtisaari was alleged to have been targeted by the South African Civil Cooperation Bureau. According to a hearing in September 2000 of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, to carry out the assault, Barnard had planned to use the grip handle of a metal saw as a knuckleduster. In the event, Ahtisaari did not attend the meeting at the Keetmanshoop Hotel, where Le Roux and Barnard lay in wait for him, after the independence elections of 1989, Ahtisaari was appointed an honorary Namibian citizen. South Africa gave him the O R Tambo award for his achievement as a diplomat and commitment to the cause of freedom in Africa
18.
Gareth Evans (politician)
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Gareth John Evans AC, QC, is an Australian international policymaker and former politician. After leaving politics, he was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Brussels-based International Crisis Group from 2000 to 2009, on returning to Australia he was appointed in 2009 honorary professorial fellow at the University of Melbourne. Since 2010, Evans has been the Chancellor of the Australian National University and he was appointed an Honorary Professorial Fellow at the ANU in 2012. He currently is a member of the Board of Sponsors for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Evans was born in Melbourne, Victoria. His father was a driver, and his mother, who had been a wartime Woolworths store manager. In 2004, he was elected an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, from 1976 to his entry into the Parliament he practised full-time as a barrister, specialising in industrial law, and appellate argument, and became a Queens Counsel in 1983. Evans was active in civil liberties issues from his student days on, campaigning on issues such as censorship, capital punishment and he was a long-serving vice-president of the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, and an active executive member of the Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service. He was an unsuccessful Labor candidate for the Senate in 1975, after the October 1980 election he was elected to the Opposition front bench in 1980, becoming Shadow Attorney-General. As Attorney-General, Evans undertook a large agenda for law reform on a range of issues and he immediately ran into controversy, arranging for the Royal Australian Air Force to take surveillance photos of the Franklin Dam project in Tasmania. The Hawke government was pledged to stop the project, over the objections of the Tasmanian Liberal government and this incident also led to Evans coining the expression streakers defence, which has entered the Australian vocabulary. In a demotion following this record, Hawke moved him to the less sensitive portfolio of Resources. In the two major industry portfolios he held over the five years, Evans was generally perceived as playing himself back into the government mainstream. Evans was appointed Foreign Minister in September 1988, after his predecessor Bill Hayden retired to become Governor-General and he held the position for seven years and six months, the longest-serving Labor minister in that portfolio. He became a well-known Foreign Minister and highly regarded internationally, Evans famously became the first person to drop the f-bomb in the Australian Parliament, interjecting for fucks sake during a speech by Senator Robert Hill. Despite his reputation as a negotiator he was reputed to be in possession of a short-temper with a particular intolerance for elected representatives of the Australian Greens. Evans ran into significant controversy on two issues, relations with Indonesia over East Timor and French Nuclear Tests in the Pacific. In 1993, as a member of the Keating government, Senator Evans became Leader of the Government in the Senate, replacing the retiring John Button, whose Deputy he had been since 1987. In this position he led the governments legislative agenda in the upper house, where the government did not have a majority
19.
Bernard Kouchner
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Bernard Kouchner is a French politician and physician. He is the co-founder of Médecins Sans Frontières and Médecins du Monde, in 2010, the Jerusalem Post considered Bernard Kouchner the 15th most influential Jew in the world. Since 2015 Kouchner is workstream leader for the AMU, where he contributes his expertise in healthcare, on a visit to Cuba in 1964, Kouchner spent the night fishing and drinking with Fidel Castro. In the protests of May 1968, he ran the medical faculty strike committee at the Sorbonne, Kouchner has three children by his first wife, Évelyne Pisier, a professor of law, and one child, Alexandre, by his present wife Christine Ockrent, a television journalist. He worked as a physician for the Red Cross in Biafra in 1968, from 1988, he began his government career in Socialist governments, though he was not always a member of the French Socialist Party. He became Secrétaire détat, a position in the Cabinet, for Humanitarian Action in 1988, then Minister of Health in 1992. Later, he continued his career in the European Parliament. Between 1993 and 1997, France was governed by right governments, when Lionel Jospin became Prime Minister in 1997, he became Minister of Health for the second time. During 18 months, he led UN efforts to create a new administration and political system replacing the Serbian ones. Thus, municipal councils were elected at local level by the end of 2000 and he was replaced on 21 January 2001 by Danish Social Democrat Hans Hækkerup. He became at this time Minister of Health for the third time and he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Pristina for his services to Kosovo. Kouchner is an advocate of humanitarian intervention. He supported the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty when it was threaten to be rejected by the Irish in referendum, recently, he co-signed the George Soros call for a strengthening of the European prerogatives as an answer to the eurozone crisis. In 2006, Kouchner was also a candidate to become Director-General of the World Health Organisation and he lost before the final election round, and Chinese candidate Margaret Chan was later elected. He has since been expelled from the Socialist Party for his acceptance of the post and he was dismissed in the November 2010 Fillon cabinet reshuffle. In September 2007, Kouchners public comments on the Iranian nuclear situation attracted much attention, in an interview on 16 September 2007, he said, We will negotiate until the end. And at the time we must prepare ourselves for the worst. The worst. He stated that France was committed to a resolution and that no military action was planned
20.
Louise Arbour
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Louise Arbour, CC GOQ is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist. From 2009 until 2014, she served as President and CEO of the International Crisis Group, Arbour was born in Montreal, Quebec to Bernard and Rose Arbour, the owners of a hotel chain. She attended convent school, during which time her parents divorced, as editor of the school magazine, she earned a reputation for irreverence. In 1967, she graduated from Collège Regina Assumpta, and proceeded to the Université de Montréal where she completed an LL. B. with distinction in 1970. She became the Law Clerk for Justice Louis-Philippe Pigeon of the Supreme Court of Canada in 1971–72 while completing graduate studies at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ottawa. This is where she met her long time common-law partner Larry Taman, in a 2014 interview, Arbour named the move from Quebec to Ontario as the biggest hurdle had to overcome to succeed in career, as her entire education had been in French. She was called to the Bar of Quebec in 1971 and to the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1977 and she has three adult children, Emilie, Patrick and Catherine. Her daughter Emilie Taman was an NDP candidate in the 2015 Canadian election in the district of Ottawa—Vanier. The father, and long time common law partner of Arbour, is Larry Taman, from 1972–73, Arbour was research officer for the Law Reform Commission of Canada. She then taught at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, first as a Lecturer, then as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and finally as Associate Professor and Associate Dean. She was Vice-President of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association until her appointment to the Supreme Court of Ontario in 1987 and she indicted then-Serbian President Slobodan Milošević for war crimes, the first time a serving head of State was called to account before an international court. In 1999, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien appointed Arbour to the Supreme Court of Canada and she has been published in the area of criminal procedure and criminal law, in both French and English. At various times, she has served as an editor for the Criminal Reports, the Canadian Rights Reporter, Arbour has been awarded honorary doctorates by twenty-seven universities. She was the subject of a 2005 fact-based Canadian-German made-for-television movie, Arbour was played by Canadian actress Wendy Crewson. She was made a Companion to the Order of Canada in 2007 for her contributions to the Canadian justice system and she was made a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 2009. She was made a Commander of the National Order of the Legion of Honour in 2011, following criticisms about this statement, Arbour reportedly distanced herself from some aspects of the charter. The Arab Charter remains listed in the Office of the High Commissioners website, in September 2008, Arbour gave a lecture, Integrating Security, Development and Human Rights, at the University of San Diegos Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series, in 2013, Arbour courted controversy by questioning the international communitys policy toolkit
21.
United Nations
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The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization to promote international co-operation. A replacement for the ineffective League of Nations, the organization was established on 24 October 1945 after World War II in order to prevent another such conflict, at its founding, the UN had 51 member states, there are now 193. The headquarters of the UN is in Manhattan, New York City, further main offices are situated in Geneva, Nairobi, and Vienna. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states, the UNs mission to preserve world peace was complicated in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union and their respective allies. The organization participated in actions in Korea and the Congo. After the end of the Cold War, the UN took on major military, the UN has six principal organs, the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the Secretariat, the International Court of Justice, and the UN Trusteeship Council. UN System agencies include the World Bank Group, the World Health Organization, the World Food Programme, UNESCO, the UNs most prominent officer is the Secretary-General, an office held by Portuguese António Guterres since 2017. Non-governmental organizations may be granted consultative status with ECOSOC and other agencies to participate in the UNs work, the organization won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001, and a number of its officers and agencies have also been awarded the prize. Other evaluations of the UNs effectiveness have been mixed, some commentators believe the organization to be an important force for peace and human development, while others have called the organization ineffective, corrupt, or biased. Following the catastrophic loss of life in the First World War, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. It incorporated Soviet suggestions, but left no role for France, four Policemen was coined to refer to four major Allied countries, United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and China, which emerged in the Declaration by United Nations. Roosevelt first coined the term United Nations to describe the Allied countries, the term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration. One major change from the Atlantic Charter was the addition of a provision for religious freedom, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. Each Government pledges itself to cooperate with the Governments signatory hereto, the foregoing declaration may be adhered to by other nations which are, or which may be, rendering material assistance and contributions in the struggle for victory over Hitlerism. During the war, the United Nations became the term for the Allies. To join, countries had to sign the Declaration and declare war on the Axis, at the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov. The first meetings of the General Assembly, with 51 nations represented, the General Assembly selected New York City as the site for the headquarters of the UN, and the facility was completed in 1952. Its site—like UN headquarters buildings in Geneva, Vienna, and Nairobi—is designated as international territory, the Norwegian Foreign Minister, Trygve Lie, was elected as the first UN Secretary-General
22.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
23.
Yemen
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Yemen, officially known as the Republic of Yemen, is an Arab country in Western Asia, occupying South Arabia, the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula. Yemen is the second-largest country in the peninsula, occupying 527,970 km2, the coastline stretches for about 2,000 km. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to the north, the Red Sea to the west, the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to the south, although Yemens constitutionally stated capital is the city of Sanaa, the city has been under rebel control since February 2015. Because of this, Yemens capital has been relocated to the port city of Aden. Yemens territory includes more than 200 islands, the largest of these is Socotra, Yemen was the home of the Sabaeans, a trading state that flourished for over a thousand years and probably also included parts of modern-day Ethiopia and Eritrea. In 275 AD, the region came under the rule of the later Jewish-influenced Himyarite Kingdom, Christianity arrived in the fourth century, whereas Judaism and local paganism were already established. Islam spread quickly in the century and Yemenite troops were crucial in the expansion of the early Islamic conquests. Administration of Yemen has long been notoriously difficult, several dynasties emerged from the ninth to 16th centuries, the Rasulid dynasty being the strongest and most prosperous. The country was divided between the Ottoman and British empires in the twentieth century. The Zaydi Mutawakkilite Kingdom of Yemen was established after World War I in North Yemen before the creation of the Yemen Arab Republic in 1962, South Yemen remained a British protectorate known as the Aden Protectorate until 1967 when it became an independent state and later, a Marxist state. The two Yemeni states united to form the modern republic of Yemen in 1990, Yemen is a developing country, and the poorest country in the Middle East. Under the rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen was described as a kleptocracy, according to the 2009 international corruption Perception Index by Transparency International, Yemen ranked 164 out of 182 countries surveyed. President Saleh stepped down and the powers of the presidency were transferred to Vice President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the transitional process was disrupted by conflicts between the Houthis and al-Islah, as well as the al-Qaeda insurgency. In September 2014, the Houthis took over Sanaa, later declaring themselves in control of the government in a coup détat, since then, a Saudi-led intervention has taken place, however, it could not stop the civil war. Instead, the Saudis and the others have destroyed some hospitals, schools and homes, Yemen was mentioned in Old South Arabian inscriptions as Yamnat. In Arabic literature, the term includes much greater territory than that of the republic of Yemen. It stretches from the northern Asir Region in southwestern Saudi Arabia to Dhofar Governorate in southern Oman, one etymology derives Yemen from yumn, meaning felicity, as much of the country is fertile. The Romans called it Arabia Felix, as opposed to Arabia Deserta, al-Yaman significantly plays on the notion of the land to the right, when in Mecca facing the dawn, complementary to Al-Sham, the Land to the Left, referring to the Levant
24.
Thailand
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Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand, formerly known as Siam, is a country at the centre of the Indochinese peninsula in Southeast Asia. With a total area of approximately 513,000 km2, Thailand is the worlds 51st-largest country and it is the 20th-most-populous country in the world, with around 66 million people. The capital and largest city is Bangkok, Thailand is a constitutional monarchy and has switched between parliamentary democracy and military junta for decades, the latest coup being in May 2014 by the National Council for Peace and Order. Its capital and most populous city is Bangkok and its maritime boundaries include Vietnam in the Gulf of Thailand to the southeast, and Indonesia and India on the Andaman Sea to the southwest. The Thai economy is the worlds 20th largest by GDP at PPP and it became a newly industrialised country and a major exporter in the 1990s. Manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism are leading sectors of the economy and it is considered a middle power in the region and around the world. The country has always been called Mueang Thai by its citizens, by outsiders prior to 1949, it was usually known by the exonym Siam. The word Siam has been identified with the Sanskrit Śyāma, the names Shan and A-hom seem to be variants of the same word. The word Śyâma is possibly not its origin, but a learned, another theory is the name derives from Chinese, Ayutthaya emerged as a dominant centre in the late fourteenth century. The Chinese called this region Xian, which the Portuguese converted into Siam, the signature of King Mongkut reads SPPM Mongkut King of the Siamese, giving the name Siam official status until 24 June 1939 when it was changed to Thailand. Thailand was renamed Siam from 1945 to 11 May 1949, after which it reverted to Thailand. According to George Cœdès, the word Thai means free man in the Thai language, ratcha Anachak Thai means kingdom of Thailand or kingdom of Thai. Etymologically, its components are, ratcha, -ana- -chak, the Thai National Anthem, written by Luang Saranupraphan during the extremely patriotic 1930s, refers to the Thai nation as, prathet Thai. The first line of the anthem is, prathet thai ruam lueat nuea chat chuea thai, Thailand is the unity of Thai flesh. There is evidence of habitation in Thailand that has been dated at 40,000 years before the present. Similar to other regions in Southeast Asia, Thailand was heavily influenced by the culture and religions of India, Thailand in its earliest days was under the rule of the Khmer Empire, which had strong Hindu roots, and the influence among Thais remains even today. Voretzsch believes that Buddhism must have been flowing into Siam from India in the time of the Indian Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire, later Thailand was influenced by the south Indian Pallava dynasty and north Indian Gupta Empire. The Menam Basin was originally populated by the Mons, and the location of Dvaravati in the 7th century, the History of the Yuan mentions an embassy from the kingdom of Sukhothai in 1282
25.
Somalia
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Somalia, officially the Federal Republic of Somalia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia to the west, Djibouti to the northwest, the Gulf of Aden to the north, the Indian Ocean to the east, Somalia has the longest coastline on Africas mainland, and its terrain consists mainly of plateaus, plains and highlands. Climatically, hot conditions prevail year-round, with monsoon winds. Somalia has an population of around 12.3 million. Around 85% of its residents are ethnic Somalis, who have inhabited the northern part of the country. Ethnic minorities are largely concentrated in the southern regions, the official languages of Somalia are Somali and Arabic, both of which belong to the Afroasiatic family. Most people in the country are Muslim, with the majority being Sunni, in antiquity, Somalia was an important commercial centre. It is among the most probable locations of the fabled ancient Land of Punt, during the Middle Ages, several powerful Somali empires dominated the regional trade, including the Ajuran Empire, the Adal Sultanate, the Warsangali Sultanate, and the Geledi Sultanate. The toponym Somalia was coined by the Italian explorer Luigi Robecchi Bricchetti, Italian occupation lasted until 1941, yielding to British military administration. British Somaliland would remain a protectorate, while Italian Somaliland in 1949 became a United Nations Trusteeship under Italian administration, in 1960, the two regions united to form the independent Somali Republic under a civilian government. The Supreme Revolutionary Council seized power in 1969 and established the Somali Democratic Republic, led by Mohamed Siad Barre, this government later collapsed in 1991 as the Somali Civil War broke out. Various armed factions began competing for influence in the power vacuum, during this period, due to the absence of a central government, Somalia was a failed state, and residents returned to customary and religious law in most regions. A few autonomous regions, including the Somaliland and Puntland administrations emerged in the north, the early 2000s saw the creation of fledgling interim federal administrations. The Transitional National Government was established in 2000, followed by the formation of the Transitional Federal Government in 2004, in 2006, the TFG, assisted by Ethiopian troops, assumed control of most of the nations southern conflict zones from the newly formed Islamic Courts Union. The ICU subsequently splintered into more radical groups such as Al-Shabaab, by mid-2012, the insurgents had lost most of the territory that they had seized. In 2011–2012, a political process providing benchmarks for the establishment of permanent democratic institutions was launched, within this administrative framework a new provisional constitution was passed in August 2012, which reformed Somalia as a federation. Somalia has maintained an informal economy, mainly based on livestock, remittances from Somalis working abroad, Somalia has been inhabited since at least the Paleolithic. During the Stone Age, the Doian and Hargeisan cultures flourished here, the oldest evidence of burial customs in the Horn of Africa comes from cemeteries in Somalia dating back to the 4th millennium BCE
26.
Venezuela
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Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a federal republic located on the northern coast of South America. It is bordered by Colombia on the west, Brazil on the south, Guyana on the east, Venezuela covers 916,445 km2 and has an estimated population of 31775371. The territory now known as Venezuela was colonized by Spain in 1522 amid resistance from indigenous peoples and it gained full independence as a separate country in 1830. During the 19th century, Venezuela suffered political turmoil and autocracy, since 1958, the country has had a series of democratic governments. This new constitution changed the name of the country to República Bolivariana de Venezuela. Venezuela is a presidential republic consisting of 23 states, the Capital District. Venezuela also claims all Guyanese territory west of the Essequibo River, oil was discovered in the early 20th century, and Venezuela has the worlds largest known oil reserves and has been one of the worlds leading exporters of oil. Previously an underdeveloped exporter of commodities such as coffee and cocoa, oil quickly came to dominate exports. The recovery of oil prices in the early 2000s gave Venezuela oil funds not seen since the 1980s, the Venezuelan government then established populist policies that initially boosted the Venezuelan economy and increased social spending, significantly reducing economic inequality and poverty. However, such policies later became controversial since they destabilized the economy, resulting in hyperinflation, an economic depression. According to the most popular and accepted version, in 1499, the stilt houses in the area of Lake Maracaibo reminded the navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, of the city of Venice, so he named the region Veneziola Piccola Venezia. The name acquired its current spelling as a result of Spanish influence, where the suffix -uela is used as a term, thus. The German language 16th century-term for the area, Klein-Venedig, also means little Venice, however, Martín Fernández de Enciso, a member of the Vespucci and Ojeda crew, gave a different account. In his work Summa de geografía, he states that they found people who called themselves the Veneciuela. Thus, the name Venezuela may have evolved from the native word and it is not known how many people lived in Venezuela before the Spanish conquest, it has been estimated at around one million. In addition to indigenous peoples known today, the population included historic groups such as the Kalina, Auaké, Caquetio, Mariche, the Timoto-Cuica culture was the most complex society in Pre-Columbian Venezuela, with pre-planned permanent villages, surrounded by irrigated, terraced fields. They also stored water in tanks and their houses were made primarily of stone and wood with thatched roofs. They were peaceful, for the most part, and depended on growing crops, regional crops included potatoes and ullucos
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Colombia
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Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a transcontinental country largely situated in the northwest of South America, with territories in Central America. Colombia shares a border to the northwest with Panama, to the east with Venezuela and Brazil and to the south with Ecuador and it shares its maritime limits with Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is a unitary, constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments, the territory of what is now Colombia was originally inhabited by indigenous peoples including the Muisca, the Quimbaya and the Tairona. The Spanish arrived in 1499 and initiated a period of conquest and colonization ultimately creating the Viceroyalty of New Granada, independence from Spain was won in 1819, but by 1830 the Gran Colombia Federation was dissolved. What is now Colombia and Panama emerged as the Republic of New Granada, the new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation, and then the United States of Colombia, before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886. Since the 1960s the country has suffered from an asymmetric low-intensity armed conflict, Colombia is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse countries in the world, and thereby possesses a rich cultural heritage. Cultural diversity has also influenced by Colombias varied geography. The urban centres are located in the highlands of the Andes mountains. Colombian territory also encompasses Amazon rainforest, tropical grassland and both Caribbean and Pacific coastlines, ecologically, it is one of the worlds 17 megadiverse countries, and the most densely biodiverse of these per square kilometer. Colombia is a power and a regional actor with the fourth-largest economy in Latin America, is part of the CIVETS group of six leading emerging markets and is an accessing member to the OECD. Colombia has an economy with macroeconomic stability and favorable growth prospects in the long run. The name Colombia is derived from the last name of Christopher Columbus and it was conceived by the Venezuelan revolutionary Francisco de Miranda as a reference to all the New World, but especially to those portions under Spanish and Portuguese rule. The name was adopted by the Republic of Colombia of 1819. When Venezuela, Ecuador and Cundinamarca came to exist as independent states, New Granada officially changed its name in 1858 to the Granadine Confederation. In 1863 the name was changed, this time to United States of Colombia. To refer to country, the Colombian government uses the terms Colombia. Owing to its location, the present territory of Colombia was a corridor of early human migration from Mesoamerica, the oldest archaeological finds are from the Pubenza and El Totumo sites in the Magdalena Valley 100 km southwest of Bogotá. These sites date from the Paleoindian period, at Puerto Hormiga and other sites, traces from the Archaic Period have been found
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Burundi
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It is also considered part of Central Africa. The southwestern border is adjacent to Lake Tanganyika, the Twa, Hutu and Tutsi peoples have lived in Burundi for at least 500 years. For more than 200 of those years, Burundi was an independent kingdom, until the beginning of the twentieth century, after the First World War and Germanys defeat, it ceded the territory to Belgium. Both Germans and Belgians ruled Burundi and Rwanda as a European colony known as Ruanda-Urundi, despite common misconceptions, Burundi and Rwanda had never been under common rule until the time of European colonisation. The European intervention exacerbated social differences between the Tutsi and Hutu, and contributed to political unrest in the region. Bouts of ethnic cleansing and ultimately two civil wars and genocides during the 1970s and again in the 1990s left the country undeveloped, Burundis political system is that of a presidential representative democratic republic based upon a multi-party state. The President of Burundi is the head of state and head of government, there are currently 21 registered parties in Burundi. On 13 March 1992, Tutsi coup leader Pierre Buyoya established a constitution, six years later, on 6 June 1998, the constitution was changed, broadening National Assemblys seats and making provisions for two vice-presidents. Because of the Arusha Accord, Burundi enacted a government in 2000. In October 2016, Burundi informed the UN of its intention to withdraw from the International Criminal Court, Burundi remains an overwhelmingly rural society, with just 13% of the population living in urban areas in 2013. The population density of around 315 people per kilometre is the second highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. Roughly 85% of the population are of Hutu ethnic origin, 15% are Tutsi, the official languages of Burundi are French and Kirundi, although Swahili can be found spoken along the Tanzanian border. One of the smallest countries in Africa, Burundi has an equatorial climate, Burundi is a part of the Albertine Rift, the western extension of the East African Rift. The country lies on a plateau in the centre of Africa. The highest peak, Mount Heha at 2,685 m, lies to the southeast of the capital, there are two national parks, Kibira National Park to the northwest, Ruvubu National Park to the northeast. Both were established in 1982 to conserve wildlife populations, Burundis lands are mostly agricultural or pasture. Settlement by rural populations has led to deforestation, soil erosion, deforestation of the entire country is almost completely due to overpopulation, with a mere 600 km2 remaining and an ongoing loss of about 9% per annum. In addition to poverty, Burundians often have to deal with corruption, weak infrastructure, poor access to health and education services, Burundi is densely populated and has had substantial emigration as young people seek opportunities elsewhere
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Uganda
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Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, Uganda is the worlds second most populous landlocked country after Ethiopia. The southern part of the country includes a portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region, Uganda also lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally a modified equatorial climate. Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a portion of the south of the country. The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, beginning in 1894, the area was ruled as a protectorate by the British, who established administrative law across the territory. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962, luganda, a central language, is widely spoken across the country, and several other languages are also spoken including Runyoro, Runyankole, Rukiga, and Luo. The president of Uganda is Yoweri Museveni, who came to power in January 1986 after a protracted guerrilla war. The ancestors of the Ugandans were hunter-gatherers until 1, 700-2,300 years ago, Bantu-speaking populations, who were probably from central Africa, migrated to the southern parts of the country. According to oral tradition, the Empire of Kitara covered an important part of the lakes area, from the northern lakes Albert and Kyoga to the southern lakes Victoria. Bunyoro-Kitara is claimed as the antecedent of the Buganda, Toro, Ankole, some Luo invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated with the Bantu there, establishing the Babiito dynasty of the current Omukama of Bunyoro-Kitara. Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s and they were followed in the 1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile. British Anglican missionaries arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877 and were followed by French Catholic missionaries in 1879, the British government chartered the Imperial British East Africa Company to negotiate trade agreements in the region beginning in 1888. From 1886, there were a series of wars in Buganda. Because of civil unrest and financial burdens, IBEAC claimed that it was unable to maintain their occupation in the region, in the 1890s,32,000 labourers from British India were recruited to East Africa under indentured labour contracts to construct the Uganda Railway. Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 decided to remain in East Africa after the lines completion, subsequently, some became traders and took control of cotton ginning and sartorial retail. British naval ships unknowingly carried rats that contained the bubonic plague and these rats spread the disease throughout Uganda. From 1900 to 1920, a sleeping sickness epidemic in the part of Uganda, along the north shores of Lake Victoria
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Sudan
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Sudan, also known as North Sudan since South Sudans independence and officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northern Africa. It is the third largest country in Africa, the River Nile divides the country into eastern and western halves. Before the Sudanese Civil War, South Sudan was part of Sudan, Sudan was home to numerous ancient civilizations, such as the Kingdom of Kush, Kerma, Nobatia, Alodia, Makuria, Meroë and others, most of which flourished along the Nile. During the pre-dynastic period Nubia and Nagadan Upper Egypt were identical, by virtue of its proximity to Egypt, the Sudan participated in the wider history of the Near East inasmuch as it was Christianized by the 6th century, and Islamized in the 15th. As a result of Christianization, the Old Nubian language stands as the oldest recorded Nilo-Saharan language, Sudan was the largest country in Africa and the Arab world until 2011, when South Sudan separated into an independent country, following an independence referendum. Sudan is now the third largest country in Africa and also the third largest country in the Arab world and its capital is Khartoum, the political, cultural and commercial centre of the nation. It is a representative democratic federal republic. The politics of Sudan are regulated by an organization called the National Assembly. The Sudanese legal system is based on Islamic law, the countrys place name Sudan is a name given to a geographical region to the south of the Sahara, stretching from Western Africa to eastern Central Africa. The name derives from the Arabic bilād as-sūdān, or the lands of the Blacks, during the fifth millennium BC migrations from the drying Sahara brought neolithic people into the Nile Valley along with agriculture. The population that resulted from this cultural and genetic mixing developed social hierarchy over the centuries become the Kingdom of Kush at 1700 BC. The Kingdom of Kush was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and it was established after the Bronze Age collapse and the disintegration of the New Kingdom of Egypt, centered at Napata in its early phase. After King Kashta invaded Egypt in the eighth century BC, the Kushite kings ruled as pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt for a century before being defeated and driven out by the Assyrians. At the height of their glory, the Kushites conquered an empire that stretched from what is now known as South Kordofan all the way to the Sinai, pharaoh Piye attempted to expand the empire into the Near East, but was thwarted by the Assyrian king Sargon II. Sennacheribs successor Esarhaddon went further, and invaded Egypt itself, deposing Taharqa, Taharqa fled back to his homeland where he died two years later. Egypt became an Assyrian colony, however, king Tantamani, after succeeding Taharqa, Esarhaddon died while preparing to leave the Assyrian capital of Nineveh in order to eject him. However, his successor Ashurbanipal sent an army into southern Egypt and routed Tantamani. During Classical Antiquity, the Nubian capital was at Meroë, in ancient Greek geography, the Meroitic kingdom was known as Ethiopia
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United Nations Security Council
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The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946. Like the UN as a whole, the Security Council was created following World War II to address the failings of an international organization. The Security Council consists of fifteen members, the great powers that were the victors of World War II—the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom, France, Republic of China, and the United States—serve as the bodys five permanent members. These permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General, the Security Council also has 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms. The bodys presidency rotates monthly among its members, Security Council resolutions are typically enforced by UN peacekeepers, military forces voluntarily provided by member states and funded independently of the main UN budget. As of 2016,103,510 peacekeeping soldiers and 16,471 civilians are deployed on 16 peacekeeping operations and 1 special political mission. Following the catastrophic loss of life in World War I, the Paris Peace Conference established the League of Nations to maintain harmony between the nations, the earliest concrete plan for a new world organization began under the aegis of the US State Department in 1939. The term United Nations was first officially used when 26 governments signed this Declaration, by 1 March 1945,21 additional states had signed. The most contentious issue at Dumbarton and in successive talks proved to be the rights of permanent members. At the conference, H. V. Evatt of the Australian delegation pushed to further restrict the power of Security Council permanent members. Due to the fear that rejecting the strong veto would cause the conferences failure, the UN officially came into existence on 24 October 1945 upon ratification of the Charter by the five then-permanent members of the Security Council and by a majority of the other 46 signatories. On 17 January 1946, the Security Council met for the first time at Church House, Westminster, in London, United Kingdom. The Security Council was largely paralysed in its early decades by the Cold War between the US and USSR and their allies, and the Council generally was only able to intervene in unrelated conflicts. Cold War divisions also paralysed the Security Councils Military Staff Committee, the committee continued to exist on paper but largely abandoned its work in the mid-1950s. By the 1970s, the UN budget for social and economic development was far greater than its budget for peacekeeping. After the Cold War, the UN saw an expansion in its peacekeeping duties. Between 1988 and 2000, the number of adopted Security Council resolutions more than doubled, undersecretary-General Brian Urquhart later described the hopes raised by these successes as a false renaissance for the organization, given the more troubled missions that followed. In 1994, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda failed to intervene in the Rwandan Genocide in the face of Security Council indecision, in the late 1990s, UN-authorised international interventions took a wider variety of forms
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Nuclear program of Iran
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The nuclear program of Iran has included several research sites, two uranium mines, a research reactor, and uranium processing facilities that include three known uranium enrichment plants. In 1970, Iran ratified the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, making its nuclear program subject to International Atomic Energy Agency verification, the program was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. The participation of the United States and Western European governments in Irans nuclear program continued until the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the Shah of Iran, following the 1979 Revolution, most of the international nuclear cooperation with Iran was cut off. In 1981, Iranian officials concluded that the nuclear development should continue. Negotiations took place with France in the late 1980s and with Argentina in the early 1990s, in the 1990s, Russia formed a joint research organization with Iran, providing Iran with Russian nuclear experts and technical information. In the 2000s, the revelation of Irans clandestine uranium enrichment program raised concerns that it might be intended for non-peaceful uses, the IAEA launched an investigation in 2003 after an Iranian dissident group revealed undeclared nuclear activities carried out by Iran. In 2006, because of Irans noncompliance with its NPT obligations, in 2007, the United States National Intelligence Estimate stated that Iran halted an alleged active nuclear weapons program in fall 2003. Irans first nuclear plant, the Bushehr I reactor, was completed with major assistance from the Russian government agency Rosatom. The Russian engineering contractor Atomenergoprom said the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant would reach capacity by the end of 2012. As of 2015, Irans nuclear program has cost $100 billion in lost oil revenues, in 1967, the Tehran Nuclear Research Center was established, run by the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran. The TNRC was equipped with a U. S. -supplied, 5-megawatt nuclear research reactor, Iran signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in 1968 and ratified it in 1970, making Irans nuclear program subject to IAEA verification. The Shah approved plans to construct up to 23 nuclear power stations by 2000, in March 1974, the Shah envisioned a time when the worlds oil supply would run out, and declared, Petroleum is a noble material, much too valuable to burn. We envision producing, as soon as possible,23,000 megawatts of electricity using nuclear plants, U. S. and European companies scrambled to do business in Iran. Bushehr, the first plant, would supply energy to the city of Shiraz, in 1975, the Erlangen/Frankfurt firm Kraftwerk Union AG, a joint venture of Siemens AG and AEG, signed a contract worth $4 to $6 billion to build the pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant. Construction of the two 1,196 MWe, and was to have completed in 1981. In 1975 Swedens 10% share in Eurodif went to Iran, the French government subsidiary company Cogéma and the Iranian Government established the Sofidif enterprise with 60% and 40% shares, respectively. In turn, Sofidif acquired a 25% share in Eurodif, which gave Iran its 10% share of Eurodif, mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi lent 1 billion dollars for the construction of the Eurodif factory, to have the right of buying 10% of the production of the site. President Gerald Ford signed a directive in 1976 offering Tehran the chance to buy, the deal was for a complete nuclear fuel cycle
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Myanmar
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Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar and also known as Burma, is a sovereign state in South East Asia bordered by Bangladesh, India, China, Laos and Thailand. About one third of Myanmars total perimeter of 5,876 km, forms an uninterrupted coastline of 1,930 km along the Bay of Bengal, the countrys 2014 census revealed a much lower population than expected, with 51 million people recorded. Myanmar is 676,578 square kilometres in size and its capital city is Naypyidaw and its largest city and former capital city is Yangon. Early civilizations in Myanmar included the Tibeto-Burman-speaking Pyu city-states in Upper Burma, the Pagan Kingdom fell due to the Mongol invasions and several warring states emerged. In the 16th century, reunified by the Taungoo Dynasty, the country was for a period the largest empire in the history of Mainland Southeast Asia. The early 19th century Konbaung Dynasty ruled over an area included modern Myanmar and briefly controlled Manipur. The British invaded Myanmar after three Anglo-Burmese Wars in the 19th century and the became a British colony. Myanmar became an independent nation in 1948, initially as a nation and then, following a coup détat in 1962. For most of its independent years, the country has been engrossed in rampant ethnic strife, during this time, the United Nations and several other organisations have reported consistent and systematic human rights violations in the country. In 2011, the junta was officially dissolved following a 2010 general election. While former military leaders still wield enormous power in the country, there is, however, continuing criticism of the governments treatment of the Muslim Rohingya minority and its poor response to the religious clashes. In the landmark 2015 election, Aung San Suu Kyis party won a majority in both houses, Myanmar is a country rich in jade and gems, oil, natural gas and other mineral resources. In 2013, its GDP stood at US$56.7 billion, the income gap in Myanmar is among the widest in the world, as a large proportion of the economy is controlled by supporters of the former military government. As of 2016, according to the Human Development Index, Myanmar had a level of human development. The renaming remains a contested issue, many political and ethnic opposition groups and countries continue to use Burma because they do not recognise the legitimacy of the ruling military government or its authority to rename the country. The countrys official name is the Republic of the Union of Myanmar. Countries that do not officially recognise that name use the long form Union of Burma instead, in English, the country is popularly known as either Burma or Myanmar /ˈmjɑːnˌmɑːr/. Both these names are derived from the name of the majority Burmese Bamar ethnic group, Myanmar is considered to be the literary form of the name of the group, while Burma is derived from Bamar, the colloquial form of the groups name
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Open Society Foundations
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Open Society Foundations, formerly the Open Society Institute, is an international grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially support civil society groups around the world, with an aim of advancing justice, education, public health. Since its founding in 1993, OSF has reported expenditures of over $11 billion, the groups name is inspired by Karl Poppers 1945 book The Open Society and Its Enemies. On May 28,1984, Soros signed a contract between the Soros Foundation and the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the document of the Soros Foundation Budapest. This was followed by several foundations in the region to help move away from communism. Open Society Institute was created in the United States in 1993 to support the Soros foundations in Central and Eastern Europe, in August 2010, it started using the name of Open Society Foundations to better reflect its role as a funder for civil society groups around the world. Soros believes there can be no absolute answers to political questions because the principle of reflexivity applies as in financial markets. In 2012, Christopher Stone joined the OSF as the second president and he replaced Aryeh Neier, who served as president from 1993 to 2012. In 2016, the OSF was reportedly the target of a security breach. Documents and information reportedly belonging to the OSF were published by a Web site, the cyber security breach has been described as sharing similarities with cyberattacks that targeted other institutions, such as the Democratic National Committee. The Open Society Foundations reported annual expenditures of $827 million in 2014 and its $873 million budget in 2013, ranked as the second largest private philanthropy budget in the United States, after the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation budget of $3.9 billion. Within these totals, OSF reported granting at least $33 million to civil rights, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, the OSF spends much of its resources on democratic causes around the world, and has also contributed to groups such as the Tides Foundation. OSF has been a financial supporter of U. S. immigration reform. OSF projects have included the National Security and Human Rights Campaign and the Lindesmith Center, the Library of Congress Soros Foundation Visiting Fellows Program was initiated in 1990. In 2007, Nicolas Guilhot said that the Open Society Foundations serve to perpetuate institutions which reinforce the social order. Guilhot, writing in Critical Sociology, connects the Soros charities to the history of capitalist philanthropy maintained by the Ford Foundation, Guilhot argues that control over the social sciences by monied interests has depoliticized this field and reinforced a capitalist view of modernization. He argues that despite critiques of malfunctioning free markets, Soros is actually a neoliberal who believes that competitive markets are the best way to organize society. This report will show that their support, and that of the Open Society Foundation, has gone to organizations with such agendas
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Chevron Corporation
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Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation. One of the companies of Standard Oil, it is headquartered in San Ramon, California. It was also one of the Seven Sisters that dominated the petroleum industry from the mid-1940s to the 1970s. Chevrons downstream operations manufacture and sell products such as fuels, lubricants, additives, the companys most significant areas of operations are the west coast of North America, the U. S. Gulf Coast, Southeast Asia, South Korea, Australia and South Africa. In 2010, Chevron sold an average 3.1 million barrels per day of refined products like gasoline, diesel, Chevrons alternative energy operations include geothermal, solar, wind power, biofuel, fuel cells, and hydrogen. In 2011–2013, the company planned to spend at least $2 billion on research, Chevron has claimed to be the worlds largest producer of geothermal energy. In October 2011, Chevron launched a 29-MW thermal solar-to-steam facility in the Coalinga Field to produce the steam for enhanced oil recovery, the project is the largest of its kind in the world. Chevron is also one of the first two brands to be Top Tier certified. The other is Tulsa, Oklahoma based QuikTrip, one of Chevrons early predecessors, Star Oil, discovered oil at the Pico Canyon Oilfield in the Santa Susana Mountains north of Los Angeles in 1876. The 25 barrels of oil per day well marked the discovery of the Newhall Field, in September 1879, Charles N. Felton, Lloyd Tevis, George Loomis and others created the Pacific Coast Oil Company, which acquired the assets of Star Oil with $1 million in funding. Pacific Coast Oil became the largest oil interest in California, by time it was acquired by Standard Oil for $761,000 in 1900. Pacific Coast operated independently and retained its name until 1906, when it was merged with a Standard Oil subsidiary, another predecessor, Texas Fuel Company, was founded in 1901 in Beaumont, Texas as an oil equipment vendor by Buckskin Joe. The founders nickname came from being harsh and aggressive, Texas Fuel worked closely with Chevron. In 1936 it formed a joint venture with California Standard named Caltex, to drill, the Texas Fuel Company was renamed the Texas Company, and later renamed Texaco. In 1911, the government broke Standard Oil into several pieces under the Sherman Antitrust Act. One of those pieces, Standard Oil Co. went on to become Chevron and it became part of the Seven Sisters, which dominated the world oil industry in the early 20th century. In 1926, the changed its name to Standard Oil Co. of California. Today Chevron is the owner of the Standard Oil trademark in 16 states in the western and southeastern U. S, to maintain ownership of the mark, the company owns and operates one Standard-branded Chevron station in each state of the area
36.
Royal Dutch Shell
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Royal Dutch Shell plc, commonly known as Shell, is a British–Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in the Netherlands and incorporated in the United Kingdom. It is one of the six oil and gas supermajors and the sixth-largest company in the world measured by 2016 revenues. Shell was first in the 2013 Fortune Global 500 list of the worlds largest companies and it also has renewable energy activities in the form of biofuels and wind. Shell has operations in over 70 countries, produces around 3.7 million barrels of oil equivalent per day and has 44,000 service stations worldwide, as of 31 December 2014, Shell had total proved reserves of 13.7 billion barrels of oil equivalent. Shell Oil Company, its subsidiary in the United States, is one of its largest businesses. Shell holds 50% of Raízen, a joint venture with Cosan, which is the third-largest Brazil-based energy company by revenues, Shell was formed in 1907 through the amalgamation of the Royal Dutch Petroleum Company of the Netherlands and the Shell Transport and Trading Company of the United Kingdom. Shell first entered the industry in 1929. In 1970 Shell acquired the mining company Billiton, which it sold in 1994. In recent decades gas exploration and production has become an important part of Shells business. Shell acquired BG Group in 2016, making it the worlds largest producer of liquefied natural gas, Shell has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE100 Index. It has secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New York Stock Exchange, as of January 2013, Shells largest shareholder was Capital Research Global Investors with 9. 85% ahead of BlackRock in second with 6. 89%. Shells logo, known as the pecten, is one of the most familiar commercial symbols in the world and it was a move largely driven by the need to compete globally with Standard Oil. The Shell Transport and Trading Company was a British company, founded in 1897 by Marcus Samuel, 1st Viscount Bearsted, and his brother Samuel Samuel. Their father had owned a company in Houndsditch, London. For various reasons, the new firm operated as a company, whereby the merging companies maintained their legal existence. The terms of the merger gave 60 percent ownership of the new group to the Dutch arm and 40 percent to the British, national patriotic sensibilities would not permit a full-scale merger or takeover of either of the two companies. The Dutch company, Koninklijke Nederlandsche Petroleum Maatschappij at The Hague, was in charge of production, the British Anglo-Saxon Petroleum Company was based in London, to direct the transport and storage of the products. During the First World War, Shell was the supplier of fuel to the British Expeditionary Force
37.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing
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New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
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Abuja
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Abuja is the capital city of Nigeria located in the centre of the country within the Federal Capital Territory. It is a city and was built mainly in the 1980s. Abujas geography is defined by Aso Rock, a 400-metre monolith left by water erosion, the Presidential Complex, National Assembly, Supreme Court and much of the city extend to the south of the rock. Zuma Rock, a 792-metre monolith, lies just north of the city on the road to Kaduna State, at the 2006 census, the city of Abuja had a population of 776,298, making it one of the ten most populous cities in Nigeria. According to the United Nations, Abuja grew by 139. 7% between 2000 and 2010, making it the fastest growing city in the world. The unofficial metropolitan area of Abuja has a population of well over three million, making it the fourth largest metropolitan area in Nigeria, surpassed only by Lagos, Kano, as at 2016, the metropolitan area of Abuja is estimated at 6 million persons. Major religious sites include the Nigerian National Mosque and the Nigerian National Christian Centre, the city is served by the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport. Abuja is known for being one of the few capital cities in Africa. The indigenous inhabitants of Abuja are the Gbagyi as the language, Bassa, Gwandara, Gade, Ganagana. The location was designated in the centre of the country in the early 1970s as it signified neutrality. Another impetus for Abuja came because of Lagos population boom that made that city overcrowded, the logic used was similar to the way Brazil planned its capital, Brasília. Construction broke ground and was dedicated in the late 1970s but, due to economic and political instability, the master plan for Abuja defined the general structure and major design elements of the city that are visible in its current form. Most countries relocated their embassies to Abuja, and many maintain their former embassies as consulates in Lagos, Abuja is the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States and the regional headquarters of OPEC. Abuja and the FCT have experienced population growth, it has been reported that some areas around Abuja have been growing at 20% to 30% per year. Squatter settlements and towns have spread rapidly in and outside the city limits, tens of thousands of people have been evicted since former FCT minister Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai started a demolition campaign in 2003. Along the Airport Road are clusters of settlements, namely Lugbe, Chika, Kuchigworo. Other satellite settlements are Idu, Mpape, Karimu, Gwagwa, Abujas Central District, also called Central Area, spans from the foot of Aso Rock, across the Three Arms Zone, to the southern base of the inner ring road. It is like the citys spinal cord, dividing it into the sector with Maitama and Wuse
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Bangkok
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Bangkok is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep. The city occupies 1,568.7 square kilometres in the Chao Phraya River delta in Central Thailand, over 14 million people live within the surrounding Bangkok Metropolitan Region, making Bangkok an extreme primate city, significantly dwarfing Thailands other urban centres in terms of importance. Bangkok was at the heart of the modernization of Siam—later renamed Thailand—during the late 19th century, the city grew rapidly during the 1960s through the 1980s and now exerts a significant impact on Thailands politics, economy, education, media and modern society. The Asian investment boom in the 1980s and 1990s led many multinational corporations to locate their headquarters in Bangkok. The city is now a regional force in finance and business. It is a hub for transport and health care, and has emerged as a regional centre for the arts, fashion. The city is known for its vibrant street life and cultural landmarks. The historic Grand Palace and Buddhist temples including Wat Arun and Wat Pho stand in contrast with other tourist attractions such as the scenes of Khaosan Road. Bangkok is among the top tourist destinations. It is named the most visited city in MasterCards Global Destination Cities Index, Bangkoks rapid growth amidst little urban planning and regulation has resulted in a haphazard cityscape and inadequate infrastructure systems. The city has turned to public transport in an attempt to solve this major problem. Five rapid transit lines are now in operation, with more systems under construction or planned by the national government and the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. The history of Bangkok dates at least back to the early 15th century, because of its strategic location near the mouth of the river, the town gradually increased in importance. Bangkok initially served as a customs outpost with forts on both sides of the river, and became the site of a siege in 1688 in which the French were expelled from Siam. After the fall of Ayutthaya to the Burmese Empire in 1767, the newly declared King Taksin established his capital at the town, in 1782, King Phutthayotfa Chulalok succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern banks Rattanakosin Island, thus founding the Rattanakosin Kingdom. The City Pillar was erected on 21 April, which is regarded as the date of foundation of the present city, Bangkoks economy gradually expanded through busy international trade, first with China, then with Western merchants returning in the early-to-mid 19th century. As the capital, Bangkok was the centre of Siams modernization as it faced pressure from Western powers in the late 19th century, Bangkok became the centre stage for power struggles between the military and political elite as the country abolished absolute monarchy in 1932
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Beijing
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Beijing is the capital of the Peoples Republic of China and the worlds third most populous city proper. It is also one of the worlds most populous capital cities, the city, located in northern China, is governed as a direct-controlled municipality under the national government with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts. Beijing is the second largest Chinese city by population after Shanghai and is the nations political, cultural. It is home to the headquarters of most of Chinas largest state-owned companies, and is a hub for the national highway, expressway, railway. The citys history dates back three millennia, as the last of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China, Beijing has been the political centre of the country for much of the past eight centuries. Beijing was the largest city in the world by population for much of the second millennium A. D, the city is renowned for its opulent palaces, temples, parks, gardens, tombs, walls and gates. Its art treasures and universities have made it centre of culture, encyclopædia Britannica notes that few cities in the world have served for so long as the political headquarters and cultural centre of an area as immense as China. Siheyuans, the traditional housing style, and hutongs, the narrow alleys between siheyuans, are major tourist attractions and are common in urban Beijing. The city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics and was chosen to host the 2022 Winter Olympics, many of Beijings 91 universities consistently rank among the best in China, of which Peking University and Tsinghua University are ranked in the top 60 universities in the world. Beijings Zhongguancun area is known as Chinas Silicon Valley and Chinas center of innovation. According to the 2016 InterNations Expat Insider Survey, Beijing ranked first in Asia in the subcategory Personal Finance Index, expats live primarily in urban districts such as Dongcheng and Chaoyang in the east, or in suburban districts such as Shunyi. Over the past 3,000 years, the city of Beijing has had other names. The name Beijing, which means Northern Capital, was applied to the city in 1403 during the Ming Dynasty to distinguish the city from Nanjing, the English spelling is based on the pinyin romanisation of the two characters as they are pronounced in Standard Mandarin. Those dialects preserve the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 京 as kjaeng, the single Chinese character abbreviation for Beijing is 京, which appears on automobile license plates in the city. The official Latin alphabet abbreviation for Beijing is BJ, the earliest traces of human habitation in the Beijing municipality were found in the caves of Dragon Bone Hill near the village of Zhoukoudian in Fangshan District, where Peking Man lived. Homo erectus fossils from the date to 230,000 to 250,000 years ago. Paleolithic Homo sapiens also lived more recently, about 27,000 years ago. Archaeologists have found neolithic settlements throughout the municipality, including in Wangfujing, the first walled city in Beijing was Ji, a city from the 11th to 7th century BC
