Global Security Concerns Questions and Answers

Answer: C

The Swat Valley is situated on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. It was in the news for the Taliban insurgency and the Pakistani army operation there in 2009.

It is not on the India-Myanmar, Pakistan-Iran or India-Nepal borders, so the third option is correct.

The valley lies in the north west of Pakistan, north of Peshawar, and was a stronghold of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan before the army's 2009 operation, Rah-e-Rast.

Answer: C

The 'Jasmine Revolution' is related to the democratic awakening in the Islamic world. It was the name for the uprising in Tunisia that began in December 2010 and overthrew President Ben Ali, and it was followed by the movements of the Arab Spring in Egypt, Libya and other countries.

It has nothing to do with the Green Revolution of agriculture, with floriculture, or with an environmental movement, although the name comes from the national flower of Tunisia.

Answer: A

Both (A) and (R) are correct. The idea that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter weakens the effort against terrorism because it lets violence against civilians be excused, so it must be made unacceptable.

The reason is also correct: terrorist groups survive through significant outside support, such as finance, safe havens and arms. The options that call either statement incorrect are wrong.

The statement in (A) is a policy position taken in international debate, such as in the work of the United Nations on counter-terrorism, where the argument is that no cause can justify attacks on civilians.

Answer: C

(A) is correct and (R) is the logical explanation of (A). Terrorism is not purposeless violence. Unlike an earthquake or a tsunami it is the work of people with specific goals, and violence is the means they use to reach those goals.

Since (R) gives exactly the reason why terrorism is not purposeless, it explains (A). The options that call either statement incorrect, or deny the explanation, are wrong.

Answer: C

Both (A) and (R) are correct, but (R) is not the cause of (A), the keyed answer. Population growth and rising consumption per person have made water a major resource issue of the twenty-first century.

Fresh water is only about three percent of the earth's water, which is a true statement, but the pressure on supply comes from the rising demand, not from this fixed share, and so (R) is a correct fact that does not by itself explain (A).

Of the fresh water, a large part is also locked in glaciers and ice caps, so the quantity easily used by people is a still smaller share of the total, which is one reason why water has been called a source of future conflict.

Answer: B

The right order of inception is the UN (1945), NAM (1961), ASEAN (1967) and SAARC (1985). The United Nations was founded after the Second World War, the Non-Aligned Movement was founded at the Belgrade summit, ASEAN at Bangkok and SAARC at Dhaka.

The other options put ASEAN or SAARC before the UN or NAM, which is wrong, so the second option is correct.

Answer: C

The correct order is 9/11 (2001), the Global War on Terror (GWOT, declared after 9/11), 26/11 (the Mumbai attacks of 2008) and Operation Jeronimo (2011).

The other sequences place the Mumbai attacks or Operation Jeronimo before the 2001 attacks, or the GWOT before 9/11, which cannot be right since the war on terror was a response to 9/11.

Answer: C

The Golden Triangle is made up of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos, where the borders meet in a region known for opium production. The Golden Crescent is the name for Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Bangladesh, and China, Vietnam and Myanmar are not groupings of this kind, so the third option is correct.

The name 'Golden Triangle' comes from the area where the borders of the three countries meet at the Mekong river, a historic source of the world's opium supply before Afghanistan took the lead.

Answer: D

The key gives economy as the main issue in the breakup of the USSR and the creation of the Central Asian republics. By the late 1980s the Soviet planned economy was stagnating, with shortages and heavy military spending, and that weakened the centre's hold over the republics and led to their independence in 1991.

Militancy, socio-cultural differences and insurgency in the Soviet Union existed in places, but they were not the common cause across all the republics. The central point of the standard account is the economic failure of the system, which is what the keyed option states.

Answer: B

The need felt to restructure the UNO is to make it more representative. The Security Council still has the five permanent members of 1945, while the membership of the General Assembly has grown from 51 to nearly 200 states, and large regions such as Africa, Latin America and South Asia have no permanent seat. Calls for reform therefore rest on the demand that the body should reflect the world as it is today.

Ending the monopoly of Western powers, reviving its functions and enlarging its scope are themes in some reform arguments, but they are narrower. The central and most widely stated reason is representation, which is why the key gives it.