2022 World Affairs Council of the Year
Network of Independent World Affairs Councils of America
Check your global affairs awareness with these ten questions taken from the week’s news reports provided via @TNWAC #TNWACquiz.
The only rule is to use the ‘honor system.’
Click on image for Quiz
Keep up with global current events by following the World Affairs Council on Twitter @TNWAC. #TNWACquiz
QUIZ WINNERS FROM LAST WEEK
David Hillinck
Pat Miletich
Charles Bowers
Rebecca Turchanik
MARCH PRIZE FOR THE WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ
How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon
by Rosa Brooks
The first serious book to examine what happens when the ancient boundary between war and peace is erased.
Once, war was a temporary state of affairs—a violent but brief interlude between times of peace. Today, America’s wars are everywhere and forever: our enemies change constantly and rarely wear uniforms, and virtually anything can become a weapon. As war expands, so does the role of the US military. Today, military personnel don’t just “kill people and break stuff.” Instead, they analyze computer code, train Afghan judges, build Ebola isolation wards, eavesdrop on electronic communications, develop soap operas, and patrol for pirates. You name it, the military does it.
Rosa Brooks traces this seismic shift in how America wages war from an unconventional perspective—that of a former top Pentagon official who is the daughter of two anti-war protesters and a human rights activist married to an Army Green Beret. Her experiences lead her to an urgent warning: When the boundaries around war disappear, we risk destroying America’s founding values and the laws and institutions we’ve built—and undermining the international rules and organizations that keep our world from sliding towards chaos. If Russia and China have recently grown bolder in their foreign adventures, it’s no accident; US precedents have paved the way for the increasingly unconstrained use of military power by states around the globe. Meanwhile, we continue to pile new tasks onto the military, making it increasingly ill-prepared for the threats America will face in the years to come.
By turns a memoir, a work of journalism, a scholarly exploration into history, anthropology and law, and a rallying cry, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything transforms the familiar into the alien, showing us that the culture we inhabit is reshaping us in ways we may suspect, but don’t really understand. It’s the kind of book that will leave you moved, astonished, and profoundly disturbed, for the world around us is quietly changing beyond recognition—and time is running out to make things right.
Source: Amazon.com
About the Author
Rosa Brooks is a Senior Fellow at the New America Foundation, a columnist for Foreign Policy, and a law professor at Georgetown University. She previously worked at the Pentagon as Counselor to the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; in 2011, she was awarded the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service. Brooks has also served as a senior advisor at the US Department of State, a consultant for Human Rights Watch, and a weekly opinion columnist for the Los Angeles Times. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post,The Wall Street Journal, and dozens of other newspapers and magazines, and she is a frequent television guest, with appearances on the Charlie Rose Show, the Rachel Maddow Show, the Today show, Meet the Press, and Erin Burnett OutFront. Brooks lives in Alexandria, Virginia, with her husband Joe, her daughters Anna and Clara, and a Brittany spaniel named Scout.
To get in on the quiz make sure you’re getting TNWAC emails (here’s the free subscription link: http://eepurl.com/gt6dn) and make sure you’re following @TNWAC on Twitter.
We’ll post the answers and the names of the winner(s) in next week’s quiz.
Here’s last week’s questions and answers:
WHAT IN THE WORLD? QUIZ
Week of Mar 12-18, 2017
1. Concerned by an influx of asylum-seekers entering his country illegally, Canadian public safety minister Ralph Goodale met in Ottawa this week with officials from which country, cited as the source of the uptick in illegal immigration into Canada?
A. Mexico
B. Syria
C. United States
D. Russia
Correct answer: C. United States
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-canada-idUSKBN16H2BB
2. Three families in Hong Kong who sheltered former U.S. National Security Agency (2013) contractor Edward Snowden after he leaked information about massive surveillance by the NSA in 2013 are shifting their request for asylum from Hong Kong to which country?
A. France
B. Sweden
C. Canada
D. Argentina
Correct answer: C. Canada
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-canada-hongkong-snowden-idUSKBN16H2J9
3. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party won a decisive victory, taking an estimated 75% of the seats in the assembly of India’s most populous state. His win in which Indian state sets Mr. Modi as the frontrunner for the 2019 general elections?
A. Uttarakhand
B. Manipur
C. Punjab
D. Uttar Pradesh
Correct answer: D. Uttar Pradesh
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-india-election-idUSKBN16I05H
4. Citing fears that decades of a one-child policy would result in a shortage of younger workers to support an aging population, Chinese officials began allowing married couples to have two children. Reports this week indicate that the policy appears to be working, since the number of live births in China is up by two million. When did China adopt the two-child policy?
A. 2009
B. 2010
C. 2013
D. 2015
Correct answer: D. 2015
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-parliament-population-idUSKBN16I096
5. South Korea’s election commission approved the December 9th impeachment judgement of parliament against THIS president:
A. Hwang Kyo-ahn
B. Moon Jae-in
C. Jay Y. Lee
D. Park Geun-hye
Correct answer: D. Park Geun-hye
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkorea-politics-idUSKBN16H066
6. The White House announced that President Trump has invited the Palestinian president for an official visit; who currently holds that title?
A. Haider al-Abadi
B. Mahmoud Abbas
C. Hani Al-Mulki
D. Beji Caid Essebsi
Correct answer: B. Mahmoud Abbas
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-palestinians-abbas-idUSKBN16H1IK
7. Several German cities cancelled rallies organized by Turkish emigres ahead of an April referendum to eliminate the post of prime minister and give Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan considerably more power; a few days later riots erupted in the Netherlands when Dutch authorities refused to allow two Turkish ministers to address crowds of potential Turkish voters. Which of the following European nations also cancelled rallies organized for Turkish emigres?
A. the UK and France
B. Italy and Spain
C. Sweden and Belgium
D. Switzerland and Austria
Correct answer: D. Switzerland and Austria
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turkey-europe-netherlands-idUSKBN16I07O
8. On a voyage undertaken to raise money for children in his home country, South African surfer Chris Bertish became the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a (modified) stand-up paddleboard. Mr. Bertish left Morocco on December 6, 2016, and landed on which Caribbean island on March 9, 2017?
A. Cuba
B. Antigua
C. Saint Lucia
D. Montserrat
Correct answer: B. Antigua
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/09/519410296/in-an-international-first-surfer-conquers-the-atlantic-alone-on-a-paddleboard
9. Citing famine due to conflict and drought in the Middle East and North Africa, United Nations humanitarian coordinator Stephen O’Brien told the U.N. Security Council this week that the organization is facing its largest humanitarian crisis since its founding, with an estimated 20 million people at risk of starving to death if immediate, coordinated action isn’t taken. In which year was the U.N. founded?
A. 1940
B. 1945
C. 1950
D. 1955
Correct answer: B. 1945
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/11/519832515/world-faces-largest-humanitarian-crisis-since-1945-u-n-official-says
10. This European leader will be in Washington next week for meetings with President Trump who will ask for advice on how to deal with Vladimir Putin according to US officials.
A. French President Francois Hollande
B. Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni
C. Polish President Andrzej Duda
D. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Correct answer: D. German Chancellor Angela Merkel
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-merkel-idUSKBN16H22T
We need and appreciate your support of
the World Affairs Council.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @TNWAC
THANKS TO THE TNWAC WEEKLY QUIZ PARTNERS
THANKS TO THE SPONSORS OF THE TENNESSEE
ACADEMIC WORLDQUEST PROGRAM – FEDEX
The Tennessee World Affairs Council is a nonprofit (501c3), nonpartisan educational charity based in Nashville that works to build understanding of global issues in our communities. Learn more about the Council and find how you can join, donate and volunteer at: www.TNWAC.org —
