Contemporary World, Secondary 5

Unit 1: Population

How the world's people are distributed, how populations change, and the great question of migration - who moves, why, and how host societies respond.

• Where the world's people live
• Demographic change: two different worlds

• Migration and its flows
• Economic migrants and refugees
• Illegal immigration networks
• How states choose and welcome immigrants

• Immigrant workers and employment policies
• The shadow economy of undocumented work
• Migration and the world's cities

Unit 2: Tensions and conflicts

Why tensions and armed conflicts arise, and the machinery the world has built to manage them - the United Nations, international law, alliances, and humanitarian organizations.

• Tension zones, sovereignty, and intervention
• Control of resources
• Denied rights as a source of conflict
• Identity demands and political autonomy

• The Charter of the United Nations
• The General Assembly and the Security Council
• The Security Council and the veto
• International criminal tribunals
• Protecting refugees

• Humanitarian NGOs in conflict
• Peacekeeping and the peace process
• Alliances and regional organizations
• Conventions, treaties, and agreements

Unit 3: Wealth

How wealth is created and why it is so unequally shared - the legacy of colonization, the North-South divide, economic globalization, multinational firms, and the debt of states.

• How wealth is created
• Measuring the wealth gap
• Organizations that shape the economy

• Colonization, decolonization, neocolonization
• North-South relations
• Globalization of the economy
• The power of multinational firms
• The debt of states