oligarchy, government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes. Oligarchies in which members of the ruling group are wealthy or exercise their power through their wealth are known as plutocracies.
Oligarchy is a form of government in which a small group of people hold most or all political power.
A few examples of modern oligarchies are Russia, China, Iran, and perhaps the United States.
Russia
Critics argue that in a capitalist society, power - economic, cultural and political - rests in the hands of the capitalist class. Communist states have also been seen as oligarchies, being ruled by a class with special privileges, the nomenklatura.
During the 1990s, once Boris Yeltsin became President of Russia in July 1991, the oligarchs emerged as well-connected entrepreneurs who started from nearly nothing and became rich through participation in the market via connections to the corrupt, but elected, government of Russia during the state's transition to a ...
Abramovich is one of many Russian "oligarchs" named in the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, CAATSA, signed into law by President Donald Trump in 2017. He is one of the Navalny 35. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Abramovich and Chelsea F.C.
Gorbachev's decision to allow elections with a multi-party system and create a presidency for the Soviet Union began a slow process of democratization that eventually destabilized Communist control and contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Russo-Ukrainian War
| Date | 20 February 2014 – ongoing (8 years, 1 month and 2 days) |
|---|---|
| Location | Ukraine (with spillover into Russia) |
| Status | Ongoing Russia began its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 |
2000–present
| Invasion | Invading forces | Defending forces |
|---|---|---|
| 2014 invasion of Ukraine | Russia | Ukraine |
| 2011 invasion of Somalia | Kenya | Somalia |
| 2008 invasion of Gaza | Israel | Gaza Strip |
| 2008 invasion of Georgia | Russia | Georgia (country) |
The country has been physically invaded a few times – once during the War of 1812, once during the Mexican–American War, several times during the Mexican Border War, and three times during World War II, two of which were air invasions.
On 22 June 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Codenamed Operation Barbarossa, it was the largest military operation in history, involving more than 3 million Axis troops and 3,500 tanks.
Vietnam was an unmitigated disaster, the only war the US has ever lost. It took the lives of 58,000 Americans and an estimated 2.5 million Vietnamese. It cost untold treasure, destroyed a president, and fired the protest of a generation at home and around the world as no event since.
| Article by | James H. Marsh, Pierre Berton |
|---|---|
| Updated by | Tabitha Marshall |
Mar 6, 2012
There were a couple of reasons for this. First, the Americans were an invading force, and the Vietnamese were fighting on their own soil. Second, the Americans were not willing to make an all-out commitment to win.
Countries currently at war (as of September 2021):
By far, the country that has been involved in the most wars in the past one hundred years, if wars are defined as all wars, military conflicts, military occupations, large scale rescue missions, and policing and peacekeeping actions performed by military units, the answer is the United States of America.
According to the historians Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig there have been eight world wars, beginning with the Nine Years' War in 1688, followed by the War of the Spanish Succession, The War of the Austrian Succession, the Seven Years' War, the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars, World War I, and ...
'" By that definition, the United States is at war in five places right now: Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. (Update: A US-led coalition is now bombing Islamic State targets in Syria.