9.6 Challenges of the 21st Century (726-733)

• Democrats: Al Gore

• Republicans (won) : George W. Bush

• Supreme Court of Florida ordered recount of votes as requested by Gore campaign

• Bush v. Gore - U.S. Supreme Court overruled Supreme Court of Florida saying that the recount used varied standards and violated the 14th amendment’s equal protection clause

• no experience in foreign policy, surrounded with veterans of previous Republican administrations

• confident and aggressive approach

• General Collin Powell - first African American secretary of state

• Ottoman Empire replaced by secular nation-states after WWI

• religious fundamentalists were against modernization, U.S. stationing troops in the Middle East was seen as a violation of lands

• Al-Qaeda “The Base” - organization of Islamic extremists preaching jihad (holy war against “Jews and Crusaders”) and restoration of Islamic caliphate/realm

• asymmetric warfare - small band of militants inflicted great damage on more powerful country

• World Trade Center truck bombing (1993)

• bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania (1998)

  • U.S. bombs Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and Sudan

  • Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden fled to Afghanistan and allied with the Taliban (Islamic fundamentalists in control of Afghanistan)

• suicide bombers nearly sank USS Cole warship

terrorist attacks on World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania, strong public outcry

U.S. overthrows Taliban government for refusing to turn over Osama bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders, Afghanistan remained unstable

• USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 - gave U.S. government unparalleled powers to obtain information, expanded surveillance and arrest powers

• unlimited wiretaps, records of phone calls and emails, imprisonment and alleged torture of suspects at Guantanamo Bay

• Department of Homeland Security - Bush combined 20+ federal agencies (Secret Service, Coast Guard, customs and immigration agencies, etc.), reorganization of government

• created director of national intelligence (2004) - coordinating intelligence activities of all agencies

• Bush’s axis of evil - Iraq, North Korea, Iran

• Bush administration publicly asserted connection between September 11, 2001 attacks and Iraq’s Saddam Hussein despite no link being found by intelligence agencies

• Bush administration asserted Iraq’s development of nuclear or biological weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) that could be used or sold to terrorists

  • none found in UN security council inspection

• Operation Iraqi Freedom (2003) - U.S. forces overran Iraqi forces, captured capital city, ended Hussein’s dictatorship

  • no WMDs found, criticism of war of choice and regime change

  • insurgents continued to attack U.S. and each other, insufficient troops to control country

  • photographs of U.S. troops mistreating prisoners at Abu Ghraib diminished the U.S’s reputation

• Democrats: John Kerry

• Republicans (won): George W. Bush

  • expanded majorities in Congress

• unresolved war in Iraq and Afghanistan, nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea

• foreign policy (good) - expansion of EU and NATO, admission of China into WTO, brokered conflicts between India and Pakistan

• unilateralism approach - not valuing cooperation with other nations

  • refusal to join Kyoto Accord to combat climate change

  • walked out of UN racism conference

  • abandoned 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia

  • refusal to negotiate with North Korea and Iran

  • Bush Doctrine - deemed containment and deterrence ineffective in a world with terrorism, justified preemptive attacks

• Democrats (won) - nominated Barack Obama instead of Hillary Clinton - message for change, opposition to Iraq war, economy on brink of collapse

• Republicans: John McCain

• Iraq - winding down ground combat operations, forces withdraw 2011

• Afghanistan - prioritized fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban, long-term partnership agreement with Afghanistan (2012)

• Osama bin Laden killed (2011) by CIA and Navy SEAL’s operation

• Arab Spring (2010) - protests and rebellions in Middle East, Syrian humanitarian crisis and refugees

• ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) vows to create worldwide caliphate under strict Islamic law and gains momentum using social media

• preventing Iran from developing and producing nuclear bombs for at least 15 years (2015)

• Asia

  • Trans-Pacific Partnership not ratified because the U.S. turned against globalization

  • North Korea developed more nuclear weapons and long-range missiles

• Europe struggled after Great Recession of 2008, resurgence of nationalism

• Russia

  • Ukraine’s pro-Russian government overthrown by pro-western movement

  • Vladimir Putin orchestrated revolt of Pro-Russian partisans of Ukraine

  • U,S, and European nations retaliated, economic sanctions placed on Russia and its leaders

• Cuba - Obama starts slow normalization of relations with Cuba

• cyber attacks from stealing U.S. private and government digital data

  • WikiLeaks - anti-secrecy group that used Russian agents to hack documents and emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign to disrupt election