A History of the United States: Chapter 32: New Challenges

Terrorism is the use of violence against civilians to reach a political goal, such as changing governments or their policies.

The law expanded the power of federal agents to tap telephones and track Internet usage in the hunt for terrorists. It also permitted agents to conduct secret searches of a suspect’s home or office, without giving prior, or earlier, notice to the owner of the property.

Insurgents, or rebel groups, attacked the U.S.-led troops. The insurgents tried to defeat U.S. efforts to establish a democratic government.

Rising waters broke through levees, or high walls along waterways, and flooded the city.

House Democrats criticized his new strategy. They called for him to set a definite, or specific, timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq.

Obama also approved money for a bailout—a financial rescue of some companies.

Today nations are interdependent—that is, one country’s economic well-being depends on the well-being of the others.

In the 1960s, scientists developed the integrated circuit, a small electronic device. A decade later, they came up with even more powerful circuits called microprocessors.

Technology has led to the rise of globalization, the linking of the world’s economies and societies.

However, it spends hundreds of billions of dollars more on imports than it earns from exports. The result is a massive trade deficit. A trade deficit occurs when a country spends more on imports than it earns from exports.

Free trade means the removal of trade barriers so that goods flow freely among countries.

Some experts believe that trade agreements, such as NAFTA, help spur economic growth. Others complain that they contribute to outsourcing—moving the production of U.S. goods and services to countries such as Mexico.

The trend toward globalization has made people aware of threats to the environment.

The pollution mixes with the air’s water vapor to make acid rain, which is rain containing high amounts of chemical pollution. Acid rain harms trees, rivers, lakes, even the stone used in buildings.