Friday, February 5th, 1999

Announcements: Map quiz is next week includes: Australia, New Zealand, the Middle East (excluding Turkey), Indonesia, and all of Asia. You do not need to know how to spell the countries because they will be written on the board and you just have to fill in the countries on a blank map. There will be 15 countries on the test.

Lecture notes:
I. Jordan
    A. King Hussein is gravely ill with cancer.
           1. He has been in power since 1952.
           2. He has been receiving treatment at the Mayo clinic for the past 6 months.
           3. He recently had a bone marrow transplant, which was unsuccessful.
    B. Jordan is 70% Palenstian, and is the buffer state in the Middle East
    C. On his trip to Jordan before his bone marrow transplant, King Hussein changed his successor
         from his brother to his son.
          1. Seen as a unexpected move, because his son has never been involved in politics.
    D. There is a fear that when King Hussein dies, the countries bordering Jordan will try to claim
        parts of the country's territory.
II. India and Pakistan
    A. The two countries have been at war 4 times in the past 50 years.
    B. Both countries have tested nuclear weapons in the past year.
    C. There has been relaxed tension between the two nations now that new bus route connects the
         two capital cities.
          1. The leader of Pakistan invited the leader of India to come to the capital of Pakistan on the
            bus' first trip.
III. Afghanistan
    A. They are currently fighting a civil war
    B. The ruling party in Afghanistan follows Islamic law very strictly.
    C. This threatens the Iranian security because both countries follow contrasting practices of
        Islamic Law.
    D. They almost went to war earlier this year because the ruling party killed 9 Iranian diplomats.
IV. China
    A. The largest country in the world -- but in 20 years, India will have the largest population.
    B. Largest communist party in the world.
    C. Have fought several wars in this century:
        1. They fought with Tibet.
            a. China's officials say that they are letting the Tibetans practice their religion freely, but they
                are actually trying to convert them to the official religion of the communist party --
                atheism.
        2. Fought with the United States and South Korea in the Korean War
        3. They fought Vietnam in the 1970s ( a border scurmious)
        4. Also fought India (border wars)
        5. Had a border conflict with the USSR in the 1960s
   D. The United States are now re-stationing some of its troops that used to be in Eastern Europe
        to the Chinese border.
V.  Indonesia
    A. President Suharto had been in power since the end of colonial rule, but was forced from
         power in May due to public demand.
         1. Student protests helped to prompt the social unrest.
    B. He was replaced by President BJ Habibie; students are now protesting him because they say
        he is another Suharto.
    C. East Timor (province)- Used to be a Portuguese colony and is now fighting for its
        independence.
VI. Japan
    A. Economy has been in trouble for two years.
    B. Their economy has been in recession for a year and a half.
    C. Most analysts expect the Japanese economy to continue to decline for the next 6 months, but
        expect it to turn around after that.
VII. Cambodia
    A. The north Vietnamese fled here during the war with the United States.
    B. Pol Pot killed about 1 million people in the 1970s.
        1. The Genocide was a backlash against modernization.
        2. He had everyone killed but the agricultural peasants.
    C. Pol Pot died a few months ago, but no one knows how he died for sure.
        1. He either killed himself with a drug overdose -- he had been ill.
        2. Or he was supposed to be captured and brought to the United States for trial ( they believe
            he could have been killed by his associates.)
VIII. Saudi Arabia
    A. Base camp for United States military attacks against Iraq
IX. Iraq
    A. Kurds -- a nation without a state
        1. They are in northern Iraq, Iran, Syria and Southern Turkey