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| 1 | The United States began to emerge as a dominant world power in the late 1800s, and by the middle of the twentieth century, the percentage of global GNP accounted for by the U.S. GNP was: |
 | A) | 10 percent. |
| B) | 25 percent. |
| C) | 50 percent. |
| D) | 75 percent. |
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| 2 | James Forrestal, the first U.S. Secretary of State after World War II, stated that the Soviets believed that the post-war world should be shaped by: |
| A) | themselves alone. |
| B) | a handful of major powers. |
| C) | only nations that embraced Communist ideology. |
| D) | strong dictators. |
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| 3 | To overcome a legal prohibition against serving three consecutive terms as Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin: |
| A) | supported his prime minister for the presidential post for a term. |
| B) | rewrote election laws. |
| C) | declared a state of emergency. |
| D) | appointed high-court judges who would set aside the constitution. |
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| 4 | One of the issues that worried Russia about events in Ukraine prior to the Russian takeover of Crimea was: |
| A) | increasing Ukrainian energy independence. |
| B) | harassment of Russian visitors to Ukraine. |
| C) | Chinese investment in Ukraine. |
| D) | Ukrainian interest in joining the European Union and NATO. |
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| 5 | China’s power compared to that of Europe began to ebb with the success of: |
| A) | European western exploration. |
| B) | the ending of the Dark Ages. |
| C) | the Industrial Revolution. |
| D) | European democracy. |
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| 6 | The Chinese consider the century of domination by Europe and eventually the United States as a period of: |
| A) | sorrow. |
| B) | humiliation. |
| C) | resignation. |
| D) | atonement. |
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| 7 | The largest predominantly Muslim country today is: |
| A) | Saudi Arabia. |
| B) | Turkey. |
| C) | Indonesia. |
| D) | Pakistan. |
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| 8 | The rivalry between the Sunni and Shiite faction of Islam was reignited when fundamentalist Shiites rose to power in: |
| A) | Iran. |
| B) | Kuwait. |
| C) | Lebanon. |
| D) | Yemen. |
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| 9 | The origins of today’s European Union lie in an organization established by a number of western European nations after World War II to set a common market for: |
| A) | armaments. |
| B) | durable consumer goods. |
| C) | coal, iron, and steel. |
| D) | agricultural products. |
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| 10 | Countries that are members of the European Union, yet did not adopt the euro as their currency, include: |
| A) | Germany. |
| B) | Great Britain. |
| C) | Portugal. |
| D) | Spain. |
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| 11 | After the United States, the second leading country in global exports is: |
| A) | India. |
| B) | Germany. |
| C) | Russia. |
| D) | China. |
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| 12 | The U.S. Export-Import Bank was established during the: |
| A) | Civil War. |
| B) | Great Depression. |
| C) | oil embargo. |
| D) | Clinton Administration. |
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| 13 | Ellen Tauscher, who believes that the United States should ratify the comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, notes that the goal of the United States is to move its relationship with Russia from one of Mutually Assured Destruction to one of Mutually Assured: |
| A) | Equality. |
| B) | Non-Proliferation. |
| C) | Peace. |
| D) | Stability. |
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| 14 | Baker Spring, who does not believe that the United States should ratify the comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, makes the objection that the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty does not define: |
| A) | the types of tests banned. |
| B) | explosive nuclear testing. |
| C) | weapons-grade nuclear material. |
| D) | penalties for noncompliance. |
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| 15 | Mary Ellen O’Connell, who believes that using drones, also called UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) to attack terrorists globally violates international law, defines a terrorist attack as: |
| A) | an armed conflict. |
| B) | a crime. |
| C) | a gray area of hostility. |
| D) | an indefinable action. |
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| 16 | Michael W. Lewis, who does not believe that using drones to attack terrorists globally violates international law, points out that the combatant’s conduct is regulated by: |
| A) | a thousand years of warfare protocol. |
| B) | International Humanitarian Law. |
| C) | domestic law. |
| D) | no one. |
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| 17 | Cuba’s former leader, Fidel Castro, has argued that the leases granting the United States use of the Guantanamo Naval Base should be voided because they: |
| A) | were established with a non-legitimate Cuban government. |
| B) | amount to the spoils of war. |
| C) | were imposed on Cuba in an unequal relationship with the United States. |
| D) | contribute to tension and mistrust in the entire region. |
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| 18 | The Supreme Court decision in Hamden v. Rumsfeld held that the establishment of military commissions to try prisoners at Guantanamo Bay: |
| A) | violated human rights treaties. |
| B) | represented presidential overreach. |
| C) | were valid under established international rules of war. |
| D) | could lead to the dissemination of classified information that would put national security at risk. |
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| 19 | Susan E. Rice, who believes the United Nations is a worthwhile organization, notes that some have criticized the Obama Administration for seeking and winning a UN seat on the: |
| A) | Security Council. |
| B) | Human Rights Council. |
| C) | Governing Council. |
| D) | Finance Council. |
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| 20 | Bruce S. Thornton, who does not believe the UN is a worthwhile organization, states that the fatal flaw of the organization is the: |
| A) | lack of financial accountability. |
| B) | disproportionate power allotted to small, non-democratic nations. |
| C) | United Nation’s inability to enforce its resolutions. |
| D) | lack of consistent, unifying moral and political principles among member nations. |
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| 21 | Brett D. Schaefer and Steven Groves, who believe that U.S. refusal to join the International Criminal Court is wise, have observed that, compared to the ad hoc tribunals it was created to replace, the ICC has performed: |
| A) | fairly well, but not without some minor problems. |
| B) | not nearly as effectively. |
| C) | little better. |
| D) | much, much better. |
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| 22 | Since the ad hoc war crimes tribunals after World War II, the first tribunal to sit in the 1990s was investigating the genocide in: |
| A) | Chechnya. |
| B) | Armenia. |
| C) | Poland. |
| D) | Bosnia. |
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| 23 | Melanne Verveer, who believes that the United States should ratify the convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, reports that the Obama Administration has made it clear that women’s equality is critical to: |
| A) | U.S. national security. |
| B) | the world’s economy. |
| C) | democracy. |
| D) | the United Nation’s mission. |
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| 24 | Steven Groves, who does not believe that the United States should ratify the convention to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women, answers those who say that the United States should ratify CEDAW in order to claim the moral high ground by saying that: |
| A) | such an attempt would backfire. |
| B) | pointless posturing would actually damage our image. |
| C) | taking so long to ratify it would nullify the effect of doing so now. |
| D) | the United States already holds the moral high ground. |
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| 25 | The United States did not ratify the original Kyoto Protocol concerning global warming because this early agreement: |
| A) | imposed a strict carbon tax. |
| B) | had no international-oversight provisions. |
| C) | required participating countries to allow international inspection. |
| D) | exempted developing nations from emissions reductions. |
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| 26 | Failing to protect the planet from climate change, President Obama states, means failing to protect the world we leave to our children, which is: |
| A) | a failure of the most fundamental reason why most people are here in the first place. |
| B) | an unfair burden to shift onto the next generation. |
| C) | opposed to the overall course of human history. |
| D) | in effect turning away from Biblical principles. |
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| 27 | More than half of all illegal immigrants to the United States today come from: |
| A) | Mexico. |
| B) | China. |
| C) | India. |
| D) | Honduras. |
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| 28 | The minor children illegally entering the United States today come in large numbers from all of the following countries except: |
| A) | Brazil. |
| B) | Honduras. |
| C) | El Salvador. |
| D) | Guatemala. |
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| 29 | Clouding this issue of the Bergdahl release in exchange for Taliban members held at Guantanamo Bay are: |
| A) | unresolved statuses for Guantanamo Bay prisoners. |
| B) | ongoing hostilities with the Taliban and other terrorist organizations. |
| C) | allegations that Bergdahl deserted the U.S. Army prior to his capture. |
| D) | charges that a ransom deal for Bergdahl had almost been completed prior to his release. |
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| 30 | A State Department spokesperson justified the prisoner exchange with the Taliban, noting that it: |
| A) | was preferable to the ongoing detainment and possible torture of a U.S. citizen. |
| B) | was typical of other prisoner exchanges by countries as war. |
| C) | was insignificant, as the Taliban members were about to be released from Guantanamo already. |
| D) | demonstrated an act of faith on the part of the United States in reaching out to an Arab ally to safeguard the Taliban members after their release. |
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| 31 | Prior to his release of a huge volume of classified U.S. national-security and foreign-policy documents, Edward Snowden was an information technology specialist with the U.S.: |
| A) | Navy. |
| B) | Internal Revenue Service. |
| C) | National Security Agency. |
| D) | Department of Homeland Security. |
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| 32 | President Obama received a personal telephone call in response to the reports that personal cell phone calls had been intercepted from the leader of: |
| A) | Germany. |
| B) | Great Britain. |
| C) | Canada. |
| D) | France. |