Lansford - Political handbook of the world 2015

Edited by

• Tom Lansford

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Copyright 2015 by CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional Quarterly Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America.

Print ISBN: 978-1-4833-7157-3

ISSN: 0193-175X

Publishing history continues on page 1869, which is to be considered an extension of the copyright page.

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President: Valerie Tomaselli

VP, Book Development: Hilary Poole

Editorial Assistant: Andrea St. Aubin

Editor-in-Chief: Tom Lansford

Contributing Authors: Melodee Baines, Brian Beary, Jack Covarrubias, James Frusetta, Elizabeth M. Hewitt, J. Stephen Hoadley, Thomas C. Muller, B. Jared Pack, Mark E. Sedgwick

Associate Editor: Laura Notton

Production Editor: Tracy Buyan

Copy Editors: Lana Arndt, Pam Schroeder

Typesetter: C&M Digitals (P) Ltd.

Proofreaders: Susan Schon, Laura Webb

Cover Designer: Michael Dubowe

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Country membership in an intergovernmental organization is given in one of two locations: Appendix C lists membership of the United Nations and its specialized and related agencies; non-UN memberships are listed at the end of each country section, under Intergovernmental Representation, using the abbreviations below. An asterisk indicates a nonofficial abbreviation. In the individual country sections, associate memberships are in italics.

• ADB Asian Development Bank
• *AfDB African Development Bank
• APEC Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
• ASEAN Association of Southeast Asian Nations
• AU African Union
• Caricom Caribbean Community and Common Market
• *CEUR Council of Europe
• CIS Commonwealth of Independent States
• Comesa Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa
• *CWTH Commonwealth
• EBRD European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
• ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
• EFTA European Free Trade Association
• EIB European Investment Bank
• EU European Union
• GCC Gulf Cooperation Council
• G-7 Group of Seven
• G-8 Group of Eight
• G-20 Group of Twenty
• *IADB Inter-American Development Bank
• ICC International Criminal Court
• IEA International Energy Agency
• IOM International Organization for Migration
• LAS League of Arab States (Arab League)
• Mercosur Southern Cone Common Market
• *NAM Nonaligned Movement
• NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
• OAS Organization of American States
• OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
• *OIC Organization of the Islamic Conference
• OPEC Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries
• OSCE Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe
• PIF Pacific Islands Forum
• SAARC South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
• SADC Southern African Development Community
• SCO Shanghai Cooperation Organization
• WEU Western European Union
• WTO World Trade Organization

New and enduring challenges threatened peace, stability, and economic progress throughout the world in 2014. A bloody civil war raged in South Sudan after an abortive ceasefire in January 2014 failed to stop the conflict between President Salva Kiir and former vice president Riak Machar. By the time of a March ceasefire, more than 10,000 had been killed and 740,000 displaced. Fighting between pro-European and pro-Russian factions in Ukraine broke out in February following protests against President Victor Yanukovych. On February 22 Yanukovych was overthrown in what came to be known as the Euromaiden Revolution. While members of the European Union (EU) recognized the new, pro-Western government, Russia used the opportunity to support secessionist movements in Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, including direct military intervention and the eventual annexation of Crimea. In response, the United States and EU members applied a variety of economic sanctions against Russia, prompting some analysts to declare the onset of a new Cold War. In May pro-Western Ukrainian billionaire Petro Poroshenko was elected president of the country.

A series of bloody internal conflicts also challenged regional stability elsewhere in the world. Syrias civil war dragged on through its third year. Estimates put the death toll in Syria at more than 191,000, with more than 3 million refugees and 6.5 million internally displaced persons. UN-brokered peace conferences in January and February failed to end the war. The conflict continued to destabilize the region, especially with the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), also known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or simply, the Islamic State (IS). ISIS drew fighters and extremists from across the region and the world to fight in Syria and Iraq. Western intelligence agencies estimated that ISIS fielded somewhere between 20,000 and 35,000 fighters. An ISIS offensive in Iraq in the spring of 2014 led to the capture of key cities such as Mosul, and it threatened Baghdad. These successes and reports of atrocities committed by ISIS prompted the United States and a coalition of nations to launch airstrikes against the organization in Iraq and Syria, beginning in September.

Increasing unrest in Nigeria culminated in the kidnapping of more than 280 school girls in April by the extremist group Boko Haram. The violence and instability threatened Nigerias economic growth. Prospects for peace in the Central African Republic did improve in 2014 with the election of Catherine Samba-Panza as interim president in January and the UN Security Council decision in April to deploy a peacekeeping force to the region to replace an African Union mission that had been criticized for its ineffectiveness. In addition, a ceasefire agreement was finalized in July following mediation efforts by the Republic of the Congo.

The two main rival Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, agreed on the creation of a unity government in June that reintegrated Gaza and the West Bank under a single authority for the first time since 2007. However, rising tensions between Israel and the Palestinian Authority exploded in July and prompted an Israeli offensive in Gaza. The fighting left 2,189 Palestinians dead, including 1,486 civilians, along with 66 Israeli soldiers and 6 civilians.