An Atlas of World Affairs

An Atlas of World Affairs

The economic, social and environmental systems of the world remain in turmoil. Recent years have seen possibly irrevocable change in the politics of Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Entirely revised and updated, the eleventh edition of An Atlas of World Affairs describes the people, factions and events that have shaped the modern world from the Second World War to the present day. International issues and conflicts are placed in their geographical contexts through the integration of nearly one hundred maps. The political context provided for current events will be invaluable to all those uncertain about the changing map of Europe and Africa, conflicts in the Middle East, and the appearances in the headlines and on our television screens of al-Qaeda, Chechnya, the Taliban, Mercosur, Somaliland, Kosovo, AIDS, OPEC and Schengenland. Critical new issues are covered, including the war on terrorism, nuclear proliferation, European Union expansion, and the pressing environmental concerns faced by many sovereign states. This edition provides guidance through all these recent changes (and many more)...

Contents

Foreword / ix
1 People and Pressure / 1
2 Economic Groupings / 5
3 Energy / 8
4 Nuclear Geography / 12
5 Sea Law / 17
6 No Longer Three Worlds / 20
7 United Nations / 23
8 Terrorism / 27
9 Commonwealth / 30
10 Europe: East and West / 33
11 Atlantic Alliance / 36
12 European Unities / 39
13 Germany / 44
14 Central and Eastern Europe / 47
15 Former Yugoslavia, Albania / 51
16 Former Soviet Union / 55
17 Russia / 58
18 Baltic to Black Sea / 61
19 Caucasus / 64
20 Ex-Soviet Central Asia / 67
21 Scandinavia / 71
22 Northern Seas / 73
23 Minorities and Micro-States / 76
24 Ireland / 80
25 Gibraltar / 82
26 Cyprus, Greece and Turkey / 84
27 Asia and Africa / 86
28 Islam / 89
29 The Arab World / 92
30 Africa / 94
31 Southern Africa / 97
32 Central Africa / 99
33 Angola and Namibia / 102
34 Republic of South Africa / 105
35 Sudan and the Horn of Africa / 108
36 East Africa / 111
37 Nigeria and Guinea Coast / 114
38 Ex-French Africa / 117
39 North Africa / 120
40 Morocco and Western Sahara / 123
41 Middle East and North African Oil / 125
42 Suez and Indian Ocean / 128
43 Israel and Arabs I / 131
44 Israel and Arabs II / 135
45 Lebanon and Syria / 140
46 Arabia / 143
47 Gulf States and Iran / 146
48 Iraq’s Wars / 150
49 Kurds / 154
50 Afghanistan / 156
51 South Asia I / 159
52 South Asia II / 162
53 Himalayas, Tibet, Burma / 165
54 China and Russia / 168
55 China and Other Neighbours / 171
56 Taiwan / 173
57 Hong Kong and Macau / 175
58 Japan / 177
59 Korea / 180
60 South-East Asia / 183
61 Indochina / 186
62 Cambodia / 189
63 Malaysia and Singapore / 191
64 Indonesia and New Guinea / 193
65 Australia and New Zealand / 196
66 South Pacific / 199
67 America and the Pacific / 202
68 United States of America / 205
69 Canada / 208
70 Mexico / 211
71 Central America, Caribbean, Cuba / 213
72 Colombia and Panama / 217
73 East Caribbean, Guianas, Venezuela / 220
74 Latin America / 222
75 Argentina and Falklands / 226
76 Antarctic / 230
77 Arctic / 232

Tables / 234
Related Information Sources / 237
Index / 239

Kurds

Nearly all of the more than 25 million Kurds are Sunni Muslims. Their language is of the Iranian group, distantly related to Persian (Farsi). Most of them live in an area that is divided between four countries: Turkey, in which there are at least 14 million Kurds; Iran, with 6 million; Iraq, with at least 4 million; and Syria, with 1 million (there are also some thousands of Kurds in Armenia and Israel). About a third of the Kurds in Turkey have migrated to its western regions, and many have, in varying degrees, become assimilated; a quarter of the members of the Turkish parliament, and a quarter of the 2 million immigrants from Turkey now in Germany, are of Kurdish origin. But the Kurds’ heartland is the region stretching from south-east Turkey to northern Iraq and western Iran, whose Population is predominantly Kurdish. Rebellious Kurds have repeatedly challenged each of the three governments that share control of this region.

After the 1914–18 war and the collapse of the Ottoman Turkish empire (which had included Iraq and Syria), it was proposed in the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres that, under a League of Nations mandate, Britain should administer an autonomous Kurdistan. Turkey successfully resisted this plan, and the territory that had been proposed for Kurdistan was instead divided between Turkey and Iraq. In later years, several ostensible offers of autonomy were made to Iraq’s Kurds by successive governments, but nothing of  substance developed.....

An Atlas of World Affairs
Andrew Boyd & Joshua Comenetz

Routledge
Eleventh edition

First published 1957 by Methuen & Co. Ltd
Second edition 1959
Third edition 1960
Fourth edition 1962
First published by Methuen as a University Paperback (fifth edition) 1964
Sixth edition 1970
Seventh edition 1983
Reprinted 1985
First published by Routledge (eighth edition) 1987
Reprinted 1989, 1990
Ninth edition 1991
Tenth edition 1998
Eleventh edition published 2007 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2007.
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© 2007 Andrew Boyd and Joshua Comenetz

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic,
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ISBN 0-203-96752-6 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN10: 0–415–39168–7 (hbk)
ISBN10: 0–415–39169–5 (pbk)
ISBN10: 0–203–96752–6 (ebk)
ISBN-13: 978–0–415–39168–9 (hbk)
ISBN-13: 978–0–415–39169–6 (pbk)
ISBN-13: 978–0–203–96752–2 (ebk)