ICT Impact on Global Conflicts and Humanitarian Issues

**ICT (Information and Communication Technologies)**

Failed States

Failed states are states that have failed to settle and live in a climate of civil war and continuing insecurity.

Clash of Civilizations

In the twenty-first century, world conflicts are not developed between nation-states, as in the preceding two centuries, but between large areas that share a similar cultural tradition.

Ethnic Cleansing

Ethnic cleansing is when inhabitants considered undesirable due to their religion or language were expelled from the regions under dispute, in order to achieve greater homogeneity of the population, rather than building multiethnic states to guarantee the rights of all citizens.

Velvet Revolution

The transition from Communist regimes to others, whether democratic or authoritarian, was performed very differently in different countries. In some, such as Czechoslovakia, it was a very peaceful and bloodless process that has been called the "Velvet Revolution". In other places, like Romania, the dictator Ceausescu was overthrown and later executed. But the most dramatic case was that of Yugoslavia, which resulted in splitting and very bloody wars. Genocides such as that perpetrated by Serb militias in Srebrenica in 1995 occurred.

Non-governmental Organizations

Non-governmental organizations are those that assume functions for humanitarian purposes, formerly reserved to the state and outside the control of any government.

Refugee

A refugee is someone who has had to flee their country because of war or persecution based on race, religion, nationality, or political ideology.

CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States)

The CIS is an organization of former Soviet republics except for Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

Islamic Fundamentalism

Fundamentalism, originally promoted by Western countries in recent years of the Cold War to undermine Communist influence in the area, has become the main terrorist threat to the U.S. and its allies, who respond to terrorism with new invasions: attacks of Al-Qaeda in New York in 2001 were followed by the intervention of a coalition under a UN mandate against the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Taliban

The Taliban is a group formed by fundamentalist Islamic students, whose objective is the imposition of Islamic law in political, social, and legal issues.

Lobby

A lobby is a pressure group that exerts political influence indirectly, through parties or factions it supports and finances.