Glossary

Definitions of terms used throughout CountryReports.

This glossary contains 1,144 terms used throughout CountryReports — political, economic, cultural, historical, and geographic terminology referenced in country profiles and articles. Terms are drawn from authoritative sources including the Library of Congress.

Diaspora: Refers to the Jews living in scattered communities outside Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) during and after the Babylonian Captivity (sixth century B.C.) and, especially, after the dispersion of the Jews from the region after the destruction of the Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70 and the Bar-Kokhba War in A.D. 132- 35. In modern times the word refers to the Jews living outside Palestine or present-day Israel. When the word is applied--usually lowercased--to non-Jews, such as the Palestinian Arab refugees, the word describes the situation of the people of one country dispersed into other countries.; Source: Library of Congress
exclusive economic zone (EEZ): A wide belt of sea and seabed adjacent to the national boundaries where the state claims preferential fishing rights and control over the exploitation of mineral and other natural resources. Madagascar claims a 150-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone. Mauritius, Comoros, Seychelles, and Maldives all claim 200 nautical miles. Boundary situations with neighboring states sometimes prevent the extension of the exclusive economic zones to the full limits claimed.
Roosevelt Corollary: Policy enunciated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 specifying that if a country in the Western Hemisphere failed to maintain internal order or to pay its international debts, the United States could intervene with military force to rectify the situation. Policy was bitterly resented by Latin American nations.
state of exception: States of assembly, siege, emergency, and catastrophe that may be declared under Article 40 of the constitution by the president of the republic, with the consent of the National Security Council, cover the following exceptional situations, respectively: a foreign war, an internal war or internal commotion, an internal disturbance, and an emergency or public calamity.