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Geopolitics Acronyms

International geopolitical and economic relations are full of concepts and acronyms. Knowing some of these denominations can be important to facilitate studies.

When studying the events of international political and economic geography, we are often faced with a tangle of acronyms that we do not always manage to have the time or patience to try to know and identify. Therefore, we have gathered in this text the main terms and their definitions to facilitate your studies.

To learn more about each of the concepts, click on their respective names.

UN: United Nations. It is an international organization made up of virtually all countries. Its main objective is to find viable solutions to combat social problems on an international scale.

WTO: World Trade Organization. It is an entity created to promote trade liberalization, that is, the facilitation of international trade. It is also the highest instance of evaluation and judgment of conflicts and processes involving trade relations between countries.

IMF: International Monetary Fund. It is a financial organization created to promote loans and economic cooperation in order to control major crises and economic problems of all kinds. It currently has 187 member countries.

World Bank: Like the IMF, the World Bank is a financial center for international cooperation. However, its objective is to contribute to the development of countries or regions of the world that most need investment.

IBRD: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. It is a bank linked to the UN created to promote the development of areas that lack investment. Like the IMF and the World Bank, it also operates through lending.

NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It is an international mechanism created for military cooperation between member countries. Created during the Cold War, NATO was the main front to fight the line of organization of the socialist Soviet countries.

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OPEC: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. It is an international cartel formed by countries that export a large amount of oil. This association is used to negotiate the price of this product, raising prices in times of political instability, especially in the Middle East.

G-8: It is a group formed by the seven richest countries in the world plus Russia. Despite not being among the largest economies in the world, the Russians are part of the G-8 because of their war power and their geopolitical importance. These countries meet periodically to resolve international economic and political dilemmas.

G-20: It is a group formed, currently, by a total of 23 underdeveloped and developing countries. These nations came together in this group to discuss trade issues and establish common agreements to be presented as a bloc in the WTO negotiating rounds.

G-20 Financial: It is formed by representatives of the central banks of the countries that make up the G-8 together with 11 other nations considered emerging. It is a discussion forum on the direction of the world economy.

BRICS: It is an acronym initially used to designate the four emerging countries with the greatest potential to become developed: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Initially, it was just a term used by some economists, but later it became a mechanism for international dialogue and cooperation. In 2011, it incorporated South Africa (changing the acronym from BRIC to BRICS).

Fun fact: the expression “BRIC” is a pun involving the word “BRICK”, which means “brick” in English. These countries would be the bricks that would build the world economy and development.

MIST: It is a newly created acronym to designate the so-called "new emerging", composed of Mexico, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey.