The World

It is possible that the United States also entered the war in part owing to the publication in early 1917 of a secret diplomatic message (the so-called Zimmermann Telegram) in which Germany promised Mexico the territory of Texas and several other states in return for its entering an alliance with Germany should the United States enter the war on th

Meanwhile, the major countries were fast coming undone from within. Germany for its part established a parliamentary democracy (known as the Weimar Republic) in the aftermath of World War I. The country labored under the weight of a lack of democratic experience, reparations, and hyperinflation that destroyed the value of its currency and much of G

Progress at the regional level in this post–Cold War era has been uneven. The most successful part of the world, by most measures, has been the Asia-Pacific. This is a region characterized by high levels of economic growth and stability between and within countries. China’s rise thus far has been largely peaceful. The biggest shortcoming in securit

Most of these decisions are based on grounds of family reunification. Once one person legally migrates to the United States, he or she can sponsor family members to also move there. The United States permits no more than 7 percent of immigrants each year to come from any single country, which puts a cap on large “sending” countries like India, Chin

also a handful of countries in between: the Philippines is a democracy but is backsliding into authoritarianism, Thailand was once a democracy but is now governed by its military, and Myanmar (Burma) recently…

Some highlights have been hidden or truncated due to export limits.

A number of other developments and trends need to be highlighted about the post–Cold War era. One feature is the revival of friction and rivalry between major powers, most significantly between the United States and both Russia and China.

One critical factor in determining the region’s future will be the role that the United States chooses to play going forward. As already noted, one reason for the region’s phenomenal success over the past seventy years is the presence of the United States. Yes, the United States badly overreached by trying to unite all of the Korean Peninsula by fo

the promise of postapartheid South Africa has not been realized. For its part, Nigeria was a British colony for a century before gaining its independence in 1960. The country’s subsequent history can only be described as deeply troubled; its initial decades were marked by civil war, secessionist challenges, and military rule. Its politics seem to h

The Middle East is home to just over half the world’s proven oil reserves; Saudi Arabia has the second-largest oil reserves (after Venezuela), is second to the United States in oil production, and is the world’s largest oil exporter.