1.
Burkina Faso
–
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in Africa around 274,200 square kilometres in size. It is surrounded by six countries, Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, in 2014 its population was estimated at just over 17.3 million. Burkina Faso is a country and French is an official language of government. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, residents of Burkina Faso are known as Burkinabé. Before the conquest of what is now Burkina Faso by the French, after gaining independence from France in 1960, the country underwent many governmental changes. Blaise Compaoré was the most recent president and ruled the country from 1987 until he was ousted from power by the popular youth upheaval of 31 October 2014 and this resulted in a semi-presidential republic which lasted from October 2014 to September 2015. On 17 September 2015 the provisional government was in turn toppled by an apparent military coup carried out by the Regiment of Presidential Security. On 24 September 2015, after pressure from the African Union, ECOWAS, and the forces, the military junta agreed to step down. Formerly called the Republic of Upper Volta, the country was renamed Burkina Faso on 4 August 1984 by then-President Thomas Sankara, the bé suffix added onto Burkina to form the demonym Burkinabé comes from the Fula language and means men or women. The northwestern part of todays Burkina Faso was populated by hunter-gatherers between 14,000 and 5000 BC and their tools, including scrapers, chisels and arrowheads, were discovered in 1973 through archeological excavations. Agricultural settlements were established between 3600 and 2600 BC, the Bura culture was an Iron-Age civilization centered in the southwest portion of modern-day Niger and in the southeast part of contemporary Burkina Faso. Iron industry, in smelting and forging for tools and weapons, had developed in Sub-Saharan Africa by 1200 BC, historians began to debate about the exact dates when Burkina Fasos many ethnic groups arrived to the area. During the Middle Ages the Mossi established several kingdoms including those of Tenkodogo, Yatenga, Zandoma. Sometime between 1328 and 1338 Mossi warriors raided Timbuktu but the Mossi were defeated by Sonni Ali of Songhai at the Battle of Kobi in Mali in 1483, during the early 16th century the Songhai conducted many slave raids into what is today Burkina Faso. During the 18th century the Gwiriko Empire was established at Bobo Dioulasso and ethnic groups such as the Dyan, Lobi, starting in the early 1890s a series of British, French and German military officers made attempts to claim parts of what is today Burkina Faso. At times these colonialists and their armies fought the local peoples, at times they forged alliances with them, the colonialist officers and their home governments also made treaties amongst themselves. Through a complex series of events what is Burkina Faso eventually became a French protectorate in 1896, the eastern and western regions, where a standoff against the forces of the powerful ruler Samori Ture complicated the situation, came under French occupation in 1897. By 1898, the majority of the corresponding to Burkina Faso was nominally conquered, however
2.
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization
–
Its seat will be Vienna, Austria. The organization will be tasked with verifying the ban on tests and will operate therefore a worldwide monitoring system. The Preparatory Commission for the CTBTO, and its Provisional Technical Secretariat, were established in 1997 and are headquartered in Vienna, as of March 2015,41 of these Annex 2 states have signed the treaty and 36 have ratified. India, North Korea and Pakistan have not signed or ratified the treaty, China, Egypt, Iran, Israel, the Preparatory Commission was established in 1997 and is tasked with making preparations for effective implementation of the Treaty, in particular by establishing its verification regime. The main task is establishing and provisionally operating the 337-facility International Monitoring System, including its International Data Centre, the Commission is tasked also with the development of operational manuals, including a manual to guide conduct of on-site inspections. The IMS, when completed, will consist of 50 primary and 120 auxiliary seismic monitoring stations,11 hydro-acoustic stations detecting acoustic waves in the oceans. 60 infra-sound stations using microbarographs to detect very low-frequency sound waves,80 radionuclide stations using air samplers to detect radioactive particles released from atmospheric explosions and/or vented from underground or under-water explosions. 16 radionuclide laboratories for analysis of samples from the radionuclide stations, Data from all stations are transmitted to the CTBTO International Data Centre in Vienna through a global private data network known as GCI, which is largely based on satellite links. States Parties will have equal and direct access to all IMS data, raw or processed, the Preparatory Commission has started the building and verification of the system of which as of April 2011 about 80% was operational. States Parties to the Treaty are encouraged to conduct a Consultation and Clarification process before requesting an on-site inspection. If an event detected by the IMS raises concerns about violation of the obligations of the CTBT. Such an inspection could take place only after entry into force of the Treaty, an inspection area of up to 1000 square kilometres would be searched by a team of inspectors. Only State Parties to the Treaty may submit a request for an OSI, when conducting an OSI, a number of detection techniques can be used. Argon-37 field measurement is a unique technology specially developed for the purpose of OSI, drilling to obtain radioactive samples from a suspected underground explosion site is also allowed. Data collected from various methods have to be fused and interpreted for decision making purposes, an important task of the CTBTO is to explore how recent scientific and technical advances in these technologies can be applied to an OSI. In addition to the IMS, C&C and OSI, the regime of the CTBT includes also the fourth element of Confidence-Building Measures. This is required in order to contribute to the resolution of any compliance concerns. Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation Preparatory Commission Global Security Institute Official website
3.
Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty
–
The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty is a multilateral treaty that bans all nuclear explosions, for both civilian and military purposes, in all environments. It was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 September 1996 but has not entered into force as eight specific states have not ratified the treaty. The movement for control of nuclear weapons began in 1945, with a call from Canada. The plan, which would serve as the basis for United States nuclear policy into the 1950s, was rejected by the Soviet Union as a US ploy to cement its nuclear dominance. Between the Trinity nuclear test of 16 July 1945 and the signing of the Partial Test Ban Treaty on 5 August 1963,499 nuclear tests were conducted. Between 1945 and 1963, the US conducted 215 atmospheric tests, the Soviet Union conducted 219, the UK conducted 21, and France conducted three. In 1954, following the Castle Bravo test, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India issued the first appeal for an agreement on testing. Negotiations on a comprehensive test ban, primarily involved the US, UK, of primary concern throughout the negotiations, which would stretch with some interruptions to July 1963, was the system of verifying compliance with the test ban and detecting illicit tests. On the Western side, there were concerns that the Soviet Union would be able to circumvent any test ban and these fears were amplified following the US Rainier shot of 19 September 1957, which was the first contained underground test of a nuclear weapon. On the Soviet side, conversely, the on-site compliance inspections demanded by the US, disagreement over verification would lead to the Anglo-American and Soviet negotiators abandoning a comprehensive test ban in favor of a partial ban, which would be finalized on 25 July 1963. The PTBT, joined by 123 states following the three parties, banned detonations for military and civilian purposes underwater, in the atmosphere. On the one hand, enactment of the treaty was followed by a drop in the atmospheric concentration of radioactive particles. On the other hand, nuclear proliferation was not halted entirely, compared to the 499 tests from 1945 to the signing of the PTBT,436 tests were conducted over the ten years following the PTBT. Furthermore, US and Soviet underground testing continued venting radioactive gas into the atmosphere, additionally, though underground testing was generally safer than above-ground testing, underground tests continued to risk the leaking of radionuclides, including plutonium, into the ground. From 1964 through 1996, the year of the CTBTs adoption, the final non-underground test was conducted by China in 1980. The PTBT has been seen as a step towards the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty of 1968, under the NPT, non-nuclear weapon states were prohibited from possessing, manufacturing, and acquiring nuclear weapons or other nuclear explosive devices. All signatories, including nuclear weapon states, were committed to the goal of nuclear disarmament. In 1974, a step towards a comprehensive test ban was made with the Threshold Test Ban Treaty, ratified by the US and Soviet Union, which banned underground tests with yields above 150 kilotons
4.
China
–
China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
5.
North Korea
–
North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, is a country in East Asia, constituting the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Pyongyang is both the capital as well as its largest city. To the north and northwest the country is bordered by China and by Russia along the Amnok, the country is bordered to the south by South Korea, with the heavily fortified Korean Demilitarized Zone separating the two. Negotiations on reunification failed, and in 1948 two separate governments were formed, the communist Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea in the north, an invasion initiated by North Korea led to the Korean War. The Korean Armistice Agreement brought about a ceasefire, and no peace treaty was ever signed. North Korea officially describes itself as a self-reliant socialist state and formally holds elections, critics regard it as a totalitarian dictatorship. Various outlets have called it Stalinist, particularly noting the elaborate cult of personality around Kim Il-sung, International organizations have assessed human rights violations in North Korea as belonging to a category of their own, with no parallel in the contemporary world. Over time, North Korea has gradually distanced itself from the world communist movement, Juche, an ideology of national self-reliance, was introduced into the constitution as a creative application of Marxism–Leninism in 1972. The means of production are owned by the state through state-run enterprises, most services such as healthcare, education, housing and food production are subsidized or state-funded. From 1994 to 1998, North Korea suffered from a famine that resulted in the deaths of between 0.24 and 3.5 million people, and the continues to struggle with food production. North Korea follows Songun, or military-first policy and it is the country with the highest number of military and paramilitary personnel, with a total of 9,495,000 active, reserve, and paramilitary personnel. Its active duty army of 1.21 million is the fourth largest in the world, after China, North Korea is an atheist state with no official religion and where public religion is discouraged. The name Korea derives from the name Goryeo, the name Goryeo itself was first used by the ancient kingdom of Goguryeo in the 5th century as a shortened form of its name. The 10th-century kingdom of Goryeo succeeded Goguryeo, and thus inherited its name, the modern spelling of Korea first appeared in the late 17th century in the travel writings of the Dutch East India Companys Hendrick Hamel. After the division of the country into North and South Korea, the two sides used different terms to refer to Korea, Chosun or Joseon in North Korea, in 1948, North Korea adopted Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea as its new legal name. After the First Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War, Korea was occupied by Japan, Japan tried to suppress Korean traditions and culture and ran the economy primarily for its own benefit. Korean resistance groups known as Dongnipgun operated along the Sino-Korean border, some of them took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. One of the leaders was the communist Kim Il-sung, who later became the leader of North Korea
6.
2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami
–
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake occurred at 00,58,53 UTC on 26 December with the epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The shock had a moment magnitude of 9. 1–9.3 and it was one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. Indonesia was the country, followed by Sri Lanka, India. It is the third-largest earthquake ever recorded on a seismograph and had the longest duration of faulting ever observed and it caused the entire planet to vibrate as much as 1 centimetre and triggered other earthquakes as far away as Alaska. Its epicentre was between Simeulue and mainland Indonesia, the plight of the affected people and countries prompted a worldwide humanitarian response. In all, the community donated more than US$14 billion in humanitarian aid. The event is known by the community as the Sumatra–Andaman earthquake. The resulting tsunami was given names, including the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, South Asian tsunami, Indonesian tsunami, the Christmas tsunami. The tsunami was initially documented as moment magnitude 8.8, in February 2005 scientists revised the estimate of the magnitude to 9.0. Although the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has accepted these new numbers, the most recent studies in 2006 have obtained a magnitude of Mw 9. 1–9.3. Dr. Hiroo Kanamori of the California Institute of Technology believes that Mw 9.2 is a representative value for the size of this great earthquake. The hypocentre of the earthquake was approximately 160 km off the western coast of northern Sumatra. The northern section of the Sunda megathrust ruptured over a length of 1,300 km, the earthquake was felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore and the Maldives. Splay faults, or secondary pop up faults, caused long and this quickly elevated the height and increased the speed of waves, causing the complete destruction of the nearby Indonesian town of Lhoknga. Of all the seismic moment released by earthquakes in the 100 years from 1906 through 2005 and this quake, together with the Good Friday earthquake and the Great Chilean earthquake, account for almost half of the total moment. The much smaller but still catastrophic 1906 San Francisco earthquake is included in the diagram for perspective, Mw denotes the magnitude of an earthquake on the moment magnitude scale. Since 1900 the only recorded with a greater magnitude were the 1960 Great Chilean earthquake. The only other recorded earthquakes of magnitude 9.0 or greater were off Kamchatka, Russia, on 4 November 1952 and Tōhoku, each of these megathrust earthquakes also spawned tsunamis in the Pacific Ocean
.jpg)
