BSEB Intermediate Political Science flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Non-Aligned Movement founding

Founded at the Belgrade Summit in 1961, with the Bandung Conference of 1955 as precursor; founding leaders included Nehru, Nasser, Tito, Sukarno and Nkrumah, representing states outside both Cold War blocs.

Cuban Missile Crisis

A 1962 confrontation over Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba; a US naval blockade and secret negotiations led to Soviet withdrawal in exchange for a US pledge not to invade Cuba and removal of missiles from Turkey.

Détente

A period of relaxed US-Soviet tension from roughly 1969 to 1979, marked by SALT I (1972) and the Helsinki Accords (1975), which ended with the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan.

Warsaw Pact

A 1955 military alliance of Soviet-bloc states created in response to NATO's formation and West Germany's rearmament; it dissolved in 1991 as communist governments collapsed.

Dissolution of the USSR

In December 1991 the Soviet Union broke into fifteen independent republics; Russia became the successor state, inheriting the UN Security Council seat and the Soviet nuclear arsenal.

Shock therapy

Rapid post-Soviet market reforms involving price liberalisation, privatisation and fiscal austerity; they produced hyperinflation, output collapse and concentration of assets among oligarchs in 1990s Russia.

Glasnost and perestroika

Gorbachev's reforms of the late 1980s: glasnost meant openness and reduced censorship; perestroika meant economic and political restructuring intended to revive the Soviet system.

BRICS

A grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (South Africa joined 2010) that coordinates positions on global economic governance and seeks to reduce Western institutional dominance.

Soft power

The ability to influence others through attraction rather than coercion, exercised via culture, values, education and media; the term was coined by Joseph Nye.

Unipolar moment

A phrase coined by Charles Krauthammer in 1990 to describe the post-Cold War period when the United States held unmatched military, economic and institutional power.

Structural power of the dollar

US influence derived from the dollar's role as principal reserve and trade currency, which gives the US low borrowing costs and leverage over global financial infrastructure.

UN Security Council veto

The power of the five permanent members (China, France, Russia, UK, US) to block substantive Security Council resolutions; abstention does not constitute a veto.

International Court of Justice

The principal judicial organ of the UN, seated at The Hague, which settles legal disputes between states and gives advisory opinions; it is distinct from the International Criminal Court.

Bretton Woods institutions

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, established at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, headquartered in Washington DC, handling monetary stability and development finance respectively.

G4 and UNSC reform

A grouping of India, Brazil, Germany and Japan seeking permanent seats on an expanded UN Security Council, counterbalanced by the Uniting for Consensus group that opposes new permanent members.

Collective security

A principle under which aggression against one member is treated as aggression against all, requiring collective response; it underpins Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

Paris Agreement

A 2015 climate treaty under the UNFCCC in which states submit Nationally Determined Contributions to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, pursuing 1.5 degrees.

Common but differentiated responsibilities

A principle in international environmental law holding that although all states share responsibility for the environment, developed states bear greater obligations due to historical emissions and capacity.

Mutually Assured Destruction

A deterrence logic in which each nuclear power can survive a first strike and retaliate devastatingly, making nuclear war irrational and stabilising the balance of terror.

States Reorganisation Act 1956

Legislation that redrew Indian state boundaries largely along linguistic lines, following the Fazl Ali Commission and the earlier creation of Andhra state in 1953 after Potti Sriramulu's fast.

Instruments of accession

Legal documents by which princely rulers ceded defence, foreign affairs and communications to India at independence; Hyderabad's accession followed a 1948 police action.

Congress system

A term describing the dominant-party pattern from 1952 to 1977, where Congress's broad social coalition and internal factional competition absorbed opposition demands within the party.

Anti-defection law

The Tenth Schedule, added in 1985 and tightened in 2003, disqualifies legislators who voluntarily leave their party or defy a party whip on key votes.

National Emergency 1975

Proclaimed on 25 June 1975 under Article 352 on grounds of internal disturbance; it suspended fundamental rights, imposed censorship, and was revoked on 21 March 1977.

Assam Accord 1985

An agreement between the Rajiv Gandhi government and Assam agitation leaders addressing illegal migration, electoral rolls and safeguards for Assamese identity, ending a six-year movement.

Mandal Commission

A commission chaired by B. P. Mandal (report 1980) that recommended 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes in central government jobs, implemented in 1990.

Pokhran-II

Five nuclear tests conducted on 11 and 13 May 1998 at Pokhran, after which India declared itself a nuclear weapons state and faced international sanctions.

No first use

India's declared nuclear doctrine posture, adopted in 1999 and refined in 2003, stating that nuclear weapons will be used only in retaliation against a nuclear attack on Indian forces.

Positive and negative liberty

Isaiah Berlin's distinction: negative liberty is absence of external interference; positive liberty is the capacity for self-mastery, which can justify state action to enable it.

Rawls's difference principle

A principle of justice permitting social and economic inequalities only if they benefit the least advantaged members of society, derived from the original position behind a veil of ignorance.

Principled distance

Rajeev Bhargava's description of Indian secularism, in which the state may engage with or support religions to promote equality and reform, rather than strict separation.

Human Development Index

A UNDP composite measure from 1990 combining life expectancy, expected and mean years of schooling, and gross national income per capita, devised by Mahbub ul Haq with Amartya Sen.