1051-1061• Create a chart identifying the challenges

facing 21st Century Europe.

• Discuss the role of the United Nations.

Challenges in the 21st Century

Issue Date

People

Details Significance

Population

Immigration

HumanRights

al-QaedaAttack

War in Iraq

Directions: Choose one of the following issues/events from your reading that you think is the most significant to the world today and in the future, complete the chart for that issue/event, and develop an argument supporting your choice. Be prepared to defend your choice with facts!

Which issue do you think is most significant to the world today and in the future? Explain why?

FRONT OF ROOM

GO to your corners…

Population

Immigration

Human Rights

Al-Qaeda Attack

War in Iraq

Challenges in the 21st CenturyIssue Dat

ePeople Details Sig.

Population2000 Birthrates decrease into a

“baby bust”.

By 2000 birthrate was 1.6 in Europe, 2.1. in U.S.

Italy had lowest.

Undermine social welfare system.

Changing gender roles may have changed this.

By 2002, birthrates hadstabilized.

Challenges in the 21st CenturyThe Growth of Immigration

• Influx of refugees and illegal immigrants from Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe raised new questions about European identity.

• Rising unemployment in Europe prompted governments there to halt immigration from North Africa and Turkey.

• In the 1990s, European governments accepted thousands of refugees from Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia,…

• Illegal immigration grew to be perhaps 500,000 annually.• Russian organized crime responsible for “People Smuggling”.• Immigration became a source of political conflict

• opposed due to job competition• undermined cultural, ethnic, national unity

• French President Chirac passed laws in 2004 banning wearing of religious clothing/objects in French public schools.

Challenges in the 21st Century

Promoting Human Rights• By 1990s European intellectuals viewed human rights as a new

historic mission.• Goal of regulating human rights would mean curbs on the

sovereign rights of nations.• Led to military interventions to stop civil wars and prevent

tyrannical rulers from slaughtering their own citizenry.• Europeans condemned the use of the death penalty in the

U.S., Saudi Arabia and China.• European socialist parties won elections throughout the

European Union in 2001.

Challenges in the 21st Century

The Al-Qaeda Attack of 9/11/01• Following the attack, the U.S. led a military campaign to

destroy the al-Qaeda network and the Taliban.• Civil war and terrorism have been linked.• As early as the 1920s, many nationalist movement used

terrorism as a strategy to achieve goals.• In the Vietnam War era, a wave of terrorism supported by

the far-left supporters of communism led to “revolutionary terror” aimed at crippling the West.

• The 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon was another wave of terrorism supported by Islamic Fundamentalists.

Challenges in the 21st Century

War in Iraq• Western unity dissolved in the face of U.S. efforts to build

support for a war against Iraq.• American fears of renewed terrorism fueled support for war. • The United States invaded Iraq in March, 2003 and quickly

overwhelmed the Iraqi army.• Confident assumption of a peaceful pro-American Iraq was

an error in judgment as resistance continued.• June, 2004 the U.S. and Britain proclaimed a fully sovereign

Iraqi government.