A fast revision cut of Class 12 Political Science Chapter 2, Contemporary Centres of Power.
Every definition, every date and every named fact the paper asks for, with nothing in between.
Read the full notes first; read this the morning of the exam.
1 All the Definitions
2 The Timeline of European Integration
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1951 April | France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg sign the Treaty of Paris establishing the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) |
| 1957 March 25 | The same six sign the Treaties of Rome establishing the EEC and Euratom |
| 1973 January | Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom join the EEC |
| 1979 June | First direct elections to the European Parliament |
| 1981 January | Greece joins the EEC |
| 1985 June | The Schengen Agreement abolishes border controls among the EEC members |
| 1986 January | Spain and Portugal join the EEC |
| 1990 October | Unification of Germany |
| 1992 February 7 | The Treaty of Maastricht is signed, establishing the European Union |
| 1993 January | The EEC is renamed the European Community (EC) |
| 1995 January | Austria, Finland and Sweden join the EU |
| 2002 January | The euro is introduced in the 12 EU members |
| 2004 May | Ten new members join: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia |
| 2007 January | Bulgaria and Romania join the EU; Slovenia adopts the euro |
| 2009 December | The Lisbon Treaty comes into force |
| 2012 | The EU is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize |
| 2013 | Croatia becomes the 28th member of the EU |
| 2016 | Referendum in Britain; 51.9 per cent of voters decide on Brexit |
3 The EU’s Influence, and Its Limits
| Kind of influence | What to be able to say |
|---|---|
| Economic | GDP projected at approximately $19.35 trillion in 2024; the euro can pose a threat to the dominance of the US dollar; share of world trade much larger than that of the United States; influence over its neighbours and in Asia and Africa; an important bloc in the WTO |
| Political and diplomatic | France holds a permanent seat on the UN Security Council; the EU includes several non-permanent UNSC members; influence on US policies such as the current position on Iran’s nuclear programme; dialogue with China on human rights and environmental degradation |
| Military | Combined armed forces the second largest in the world; defence spending second after the US; France has approximately 335 nuclear warheads; second most important source of space and communications technology |
| Its limits | Member states have their own foreign relations and defence policies at odds with each other (Tony Blair and the newer members with the US on Iraq, Germany and France against); Euro-skepticism; Margaret Thatcher kept the UK out of the European Market; Denmark and Sweden resisted Maastricht and the euro; the attempt at an EU Constitution failed; Brexit in 2016 |
The circle of gold stars stands for solidarity and harmony between the peoples of Europe. It has
twelve stars, as the number twelve is traditionally the symbol of perfection, completeness and
unity.
4 ASEAN in One Block
1967, by the Bangkok Declaration, signed by five countries: Indonesia,
Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Later joined by Brunei Darussalam,
Vietnam, Lao PDR, Myanmar (Burma) and Cambodia, taking its strength to ten.
Objectives. Primarily to accelerate economic growth and through that ‘social progress and
cultural development’. Secondarily to promote regional peace and stability based on the rule of law
and the principles of the United Nations Charter.
The logo. Ten stalks of paddy (rice) for the ten Southeast Asian countries bound together
in friendship and solidarity; the circle symbolises the unity of ASEAN.
| The three pillars (2003) | Objective |
|---|---|
| ASEAN Security Community | Outstanding territorial disputes should not escalate into armed confrontation; by 2003 several agreements to uphold peace, neutrality, cooperation, non-interference and respect for national differences and sovereign rights |
| ASEAN Economic Community | A common market and production base within ASEAN states; social and economic development; improving the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism; a Free Trade Area for investment, labour and services |
| ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community | Social progress and cultural development, the founding objective of 1967 |
1. The ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), established 1994, carries out coordination of security and foreign policy.
2. Vision 2020 defines an outward-looking role for ASEAN; ASEAN has mediated the end of the Cambodian conflict and the East Timor crisis, and meets annually to discuss East Asian cooperation.
3. ASEAN “was and still remains principally an economic association”. Its region is a much smaller economy than the US, the EU and Japan, but is growing much faster than all of them. The US and China have already moved fast to negotiate FTAs with ASEAN.
4. India and ASEAN. Indian foreign policy did not pay adequate attention to ASEAN during the Cold War years. India signed trade agreements with Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and the ASEAN-India FTA came into effect in 2010. Look East since the early 1990s, Act East since 2014.
5 China: Old Model, Reform, Result, Cost
| Stage | What to say |
|---|---|
| The old model, 1949 | People’s Republic of China after the communist revolution under Mao; economy based on the Soviet model; links with the capitalist world severed; state-owned heavy industries built from capital accumulated from agriculture; imports substituted by domestic goods |
| What it achieved | The foundations of an industrial economy on a scale that did not exist before; employment and social welfare assured to all citizens; ahead of most developing countries in education and health; growth of 5-6 per cent |
| The crisis | Population growth of 2-3 per cent made that growth insufficient; agriculture could not generate a surplus for industry; industrial production too slow; minimal international trade; very low per capita income |
| The 1970s decisions | 1972 relations with the United States, ending political and economic isolation; 1973 Zhou Enlai’s ‘four modernisations’; by 1978 Deng Xiaoping’s ‘open door’ policy and economic reforms |
| The reforms | China’s own path, not ‘shock therapy’: step by step. 1982 privatisation of agriculture, 1998 privatisation of industry, trade barriers removed only in SEZs. The state played and continues to play a central role in setting up the market economy |
| The results | A break from stagnation; a remarkable rise in agricultural production and rural incomes; exponential growth in rural industry from high rural savings; a phenomenal rise in foreign trade; the most important destination for FDI anywhere in the world; large foreign exchange reserves; WTO accession in 2001 |
| The costs | Unemployment risen, with nearly 100 million people looking for jobs; female employment and conditions of work as bad as in Europe of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; environmental degradation and corruption increased; inequality between rural and urban residents and between coastal and inland provinces |
| Regional and global role | Driver of East Asian growth; interdependence tempers outstanding issues with Japan, the US, ASEAN and Russia; hopes to resolve differences with Taiwan, a renegade province, by integrating it into its economy; contributions to ASEAN stability after the 1997 financial crisis; outward looking investment and aid in Latin America and Africa; projected to overtake the US as the largest economy by 2040 |
6 India and China: Every Date
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| Before Western imperialism | Both were great powers in Asia; China’s tributary system, India’s kingdoms and empires; the regions of influence rarely ever overlapped, so neither was familiar with the other |
| After independence | Hope of shaping the future of the developing world together; ‘Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai’ |
| 1950 | Chinese takeover of Tibet; differences over the final settlement of the Sino-Indian border |
| 1962 | Border conflict over competing claims principally in Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region of Ladakh; India suffered military reverses |
| Until 1976 | Diplomatic relations between the two countries were downgraded |
| Mid to late 1970s | China’s policy became more pragmatic and less ideological after the change in its political leadership |
| 1981 | A series of talks to resolve the border issue is initiated |
| December 1988 | Rajiv Gandhi’s visit to China gives the impetus for improvement |
| Since 1992 | Bilateral trade $338 million in 1992, more than $84 billion in 2017 |
| 1998 | India’s nuclear tests, justified on the grounds of a threat from China |
| Since 1999 | India-China trade growing at 30 per cent per year |
| 2018 and 2019 | Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China in 2018; Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India in 2019 |
| Recently | A downslide: border disputes, the China-Pakistan economic corridor, and China’s support to Pakistan in the UN against India’s move to counter terrorism |
Contentious issues: Tibet and the boundary; the 1962 conflict; India’s 1998 tests and China’s part in Pakistan’s nuclear programme; China’s military relations with Bangladesh and Myanmar; the recent downslide.
Steps towards cooperation: peace and tranquility on the border; agreements on cultural exchanges and on cooperation in science and technology; four border posts opened for trade; cooperation on bidding for energy deals abroad; similar policies in the WTO; uninterrupted boundary talks and increasing military-to-military cooperation.
7 Japan and South Korea in Facts
| Japan | South Korea | |
|---|---|---|
| OECD | Member since 1964 | Member since 1996 |
| Economy in 2017 | Third largest in the world | Eleventh largest in the world |
| Military expenditure | One per cent of GDP, yet the seventh largest in the world | Tenth largest in the world |
| Other rankings | Eleventh most populous nation; second largest contributor to the regular budget of the UN, almost 10 per cent of the total; the only Asian member of the G-7 | HDI rank 18, according to the Human Development Report 2016 |
| Security | The only nation that suffered the destruction caused by nuclear bombs; a security alliance with the US since 1951; Article 9 renounces war | Divided from North Korea along the 38th Parallel; the Korean War of 1950-53; both Koreas became UN members on 17 September 1991 |
| Why it grew | Very few natural resources and most raw materials imported, yet rapid progress after the Second World War; high-technology products | “Miracle on the Han River” between the 1960s and the 1980s; successful land reforms, rural development, extensive human resources development and rapid equitable economic growth, plus export orientation, strong redistribution policies, public infrastructure development, effective institutions and governance |
| Brands the book names | Sony, Panasonic, Canon, Suzuki, Honda, Toyota, Mazda; ASIMO, the world’s most advanced humanoid robot | Samsung, LG and Hyundai, renowned in India |
8 Numbers and Names Worth Memorising
Years: 1948 OEEC · 1949 Council of Europe · 1951 ECSC · 1957 EEC and Euratom · 1967 ASEAN · 1978 China’s open door · 1982 and 1998 China privatises agriculture and industry · 1992 the EU · 1994 the ARF · 2001 China joins the WTO · 2003 the three ASEAN pillars · 2010 the ASEAN-India FTA · 2016 the Brexit referendum · 2040 the year China is projected to overtake the US.
Figures: 12 stars on the EU flag · $19.35 trillion, the EU’s projected GDP for 2024 · 335 French nuclear warheads · 10 ASEAN members and 10 stalks of paddy · 5 ASEAN founders · 6 SEZs in China and more than 200 approved in India · 5-6 per cent Chinese growth against 2-3 per cent population growth · nearly 100 million people in China looking for jobs · 30 per cent annual growth in India-China trade since 1999 · $338 million in 1992 to more than $84 billion in 2017 · 51.9 per cent for Brexit · 4 border posts opened for trade.
People: Mao (1949 revolution) · Zhou Enlai (four modernisations, 1973) · Deng Xiaoping (open door, by 1978) · Tony Blair (Iraq) · Margaret Thatcher (kept the UK out of the European Market) · Rajiv Gandhi (December 1988) · Narendra Modi (2018) · Xi Jinping (2019).
Documents and bodies: Marshall Plan, NATO, OEEC, Council of Europe, Treaty of Paris, Treaties of Rome, Schengen Agreement, Treaty of Maastricht, Lisbon Treaty · Bangkok Declaration, the three pillars, ARF, Vision 2020, the ASEAN Dispute Settlement Mechanism · Bandung Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement, the earlier attempts that were ineffective.
9 The Chapter’s Own Frame
After the end of the bipolar structure of world politics in the early 1990s, it became clear that
alternative centres of political and economic power could limit America’s dominance. While evolving
regional solutions to their historical enmities and weaknesses, both the EU and ASEAN have
developed alternative institutions and conventions that build a more peaceful and cooperative
regional order, and have transformed the countries in the region into prosperous economies. The
economic rise of China has made a dramatic impact on world politics.
10 CBSE Reference Topics: BRICS, Russia, India
Not in the NCERT book. The CBSE 2026-27 curriculum adds it as “Additional Reference Material” and says: “The additional reference material is for classroom transaction and will not be assessed in the Board examination.”
- BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. BRIC began in 2006, first summit in Russia in 2009; South Africa joined in 2010. Aims: economic cooperation and mutual benefit, non-interference, equality. 11th summit: Brazil, 2019. BRICS+: Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE (2024); Indonesia (early 2025). India chairs BRICS and hosts the 18th summit in 2026.
- Russia: largest part and successor of the USSR; large mineral, natural-resource and gas reserves; nuclear state; permanent member (P-5) of the UN Security Council.
- India: an emerging 21st-century power: large competitive market, $5 trillion economy goal, large diaspora, indigenous nuclear technology, ‘Make in India’.
- EU, 1992 or 1993? NCERT: established 1992 (Maastricht Treaty signed 7 February 1992). The treaty came into force in November 1993, so the CBSE note says “founded in 1993”. 27 members after Brexit.