Yasser Arafat

Mohammed Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini (محمد عبد الرحمن عبد الرؤوف عرفات القدوة الحسيني‎) (August 24, 1929 – November 11, 2004), popularly known as Yasser Arafat, was a Palestinian leader. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, President of the Palestinian National Authority,^[2] and leader of the secular Fatah political party, which he founded 1959.^[3] Arafat spent much of his life fighting against Israel in the name of Palestinian self-determination. Originally opposed to Israel's existence, he modified his position in 1988 when he accepted UN Security Council Resolution 242.

Arafat and his movement operated from several Arab countries. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Fatah faced off with Jordan in a brief civil war. Forced out of Jordan and into Lebanon, Arafat and Fatah were major targets of Israel's 1978 and 1982 invasions of that country. The majority of the Palestinian people — regardless of political ideology or faction — viewed him as a freedom fighter and martyr who symbolized their national aspirations, many Israelis described him as a terrorist for the many attacks his faction led against civilians.^[4]

Later in his career, Arafat engaged in a series of negotiations with the government of Israel to end the decades-long conflict between that country and the PLO. These included the Madrid Conference of 1991, the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2000 Camp David Summit. His political rivals, including Islamists and several PLO leftists, often denounced him for being corrupt or too submissive in his concessions to the Israeli government. In 1994, Arafat received the Nobel Peace Prize, together with Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, for the negotiations at Oslo. During this time, Hamas and other militant organizations rose to power and shook the foundations of the authority Fatah under Arafat had established in the Palestinian Occupied Territories.

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (born September 9, 1949), is an Indonesian retired military general and the sixth President of Indonesia. Yudhoyono won the presidency in September 2004 in the second round of the Indonesian presidential election, in which he defeated incumbent President Megawati Sukarnoputri. He was sworn into office on October 20, 2004, together with Jusuf Kalla as Vice President.

Javanese do not have surnames in the Western sense.^[1] The name Yudhoyono was not inherited either from his father or his mother. While Susilo Bambang uses Yudhoyono in naming his children, it is not a descended family surname. In Indonesia, he is referred to in some media as Susilo and is widely known by the initial SBY. Abroad, he is referred to as Yudhoyono, a name that he chose for his military name-tag, while in formal meetings and functions he is addressed as Dr. Yudhoyono. Susilo is apparently derived from Susila in Sanskrit which in means 'well-behaved' or perhaps Sushil, which means 'one with good character'.

Augusto Pinochet

Augusto José Ramón Pinochet^[1] Ugarte (November 25, 1915 – December 10, 2006) was a Chilean military officer and dictator. He was President of the Government Junta of Chile from 1973 to 1974 and, by decree of the Junta, President of Chile from 1974 until the return of civilian rule in 1990.

From the beginning of the military regime he implemented harsh measures against his political opponents which included systematic violations of civil liberties and human rights and for which he faced several criminal processes until his death in 2006. His regime is also remembered for its implementation of classically liberal and neo-liberal economic reforms, including the privatization of several state controlled industries and the rollback of many state welfare institutions. These policies were initially very successful in recovering economic growth, and are often called el milagro económico ("the economic miracle") of the military regime in Chile, but they dramatically increased inequality and some attribute the devastating effect of the 1982 monetary crisis in the Chilean economy to these policies.

Rudy Giuliani

Rudolph William Louis "Rudy" Giuliani KBE (pronounced /ˈruːdi ˌdʒuːliːˈɑːni/;^[1] born May 28, 1944) is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician from the state of New York who was Mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001.

A Democrat and Independent in the 1970s, and a Republican from the 1980s to the present, Giuliani served in the United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, eventually becoming U.S. Attorney. He prosecuted a number of high-profile cases, including ones against organized crime and Wall Street financiers.

Giuliani served two terms as Mayor of New York City, and was credited with initiating improvements in the city's quality of life and with a reduction in crime. He ran for the United States Senate in 2000 but withdrew due to being diagnosed with prostate cancer and to revelations about his personal life. Giuliani gained international attention during and after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center.^[2] In 2001, Time magazine named him "Person of the Year"^[3] and he received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2002.^[4]

After leaving office as mayor, Giuliani founded Giuliani Partners, a security consulting business; acquired Giuliani Capital Advisors (later sold), an investment banking firm; and joined the Bracewell & Giuliani law firm, which changed its name when he became a partner. Giuliani ran for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 United States presidential election. After leading in national polls for much of 2007, his candidacy faltered late in that year and he did poorly in the early caucuses and primaries in 2008. He withdrew from the race on January 30, 2008 and endorsed John McCain.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (Persian: محمود احمدی‌نژاد, Mahmud Ahmadinežâd mæhˈmuːd æhmædiːneˈʒɒːd (help·info); born October 28, 1956)^[1][2] is the sixth and current President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became president on August 6, 2005 after winning the 2005 presidential election by popular vote.^[3] Prior to becoming president, Ahmadinejad served as mayor of Tehran, a governor of Kurdistan, Ardabil, and served in the Iran-Iraq War, as a member of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution. He is the highest directly elected official in the country; however, according to Article 113^[4] of Constitution of Iran, he has much less power than the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of Iran and has the final word in all aspects of foreign and domestic policies.^[4][5][6]

Ahmadinejad is a critic of the George W. Bush Administration and supports strengthened relations with Russia, Venezuela, Syria, and the Persian Gulf states.^[7][8][9] He has said Iran's nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has refused to end enrichment despite United Nations Security Council resolutions.^[10]

He has called for the dissolution of the state of Israel and its government, which he does not regard as legitimate or representative of the population,^[11][12] and for free elections in the region. He believes that the Palestinians need a stronger voice in the region's future.^[13][14] One of his most controversial statements was one in which, according to some translations, he called for Israel to be "wiped off the map," but interpretations of this statement vary widely.^{[15][16][17][18][19]} He has also been condemned for describing the Holocaust as a myth,^[15][20] which has led to accusations of anti-semitism.^[21] In response to these criticisms, Ahmadinejad said “No, I am not anti-Jew, I respect them very much.

Zhou Enlai

Zhou Enlai (simplified Chinese: 周恩来; traditional Chinese: 周恩來; pinyin: Zhōu Ēnlái; Wade-Giles: Chou En-lai) (March 5, 1898 – January 8, 1976) was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from 1949 until his death in January 1976. Zhou was instrumental in the Communist Party's rise to power, and subsequently in the construction of the Chinese economy and reformation of Chinese society.

A skilled and able diplomat, Zhou served as the Chinese foreign minister from 1949 to 1958. Advocating peaceful coexistence with the West, he participated in the 1954 Geneva Conference and helped orchestrate Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China. Due to his expertise, Zhou was largely able to survive the purges of high-level Chinese Communist Party officials during the Cultural Revolution. His attempts at mitigating the Red Guard's damage and his efforts to protect others from their wrath made him immensely popular in the Revolution's later stages.

As Mao Zedong's health began to decline in 1971 and 1972, Zhou and the Gang of Four struggled internally over leadership of China. Zhou's health was also failing however, and he died eight months before Mao on January 8, 1976. The massive public outpouring of grief in Beijing turned to anger towards the Gang of Four, leading to the Tiananmen Incident. Deng Xiaoping, Zhou's ally and successor as Premier, was able to outmaneuver the Gang of Four politically and eventually take Mao's place as Paramount Leader.

He is also remembered for saying, when asked for his assessment of the 1789 French Revolution, "It is too early to say".

Antonio Gramsci

Antonio Gramsci (IPA: ['ɡramʃi]) (January 23, 1891 – April 27, 1937) was an Italian philosopher, writer, politician and political theorist. A founding member and onetime leader of the Communist Party of Italy, he was imprisoned by Mussolini's Fascist regime. His writings are heavily concerned with the analysis of culture and political leadership and he is notable as a highly original thinker within the Marxist tradition. He is renowned for his concept of cultural hegemony as a means of maintaining the state in a capitalist society.

Gramsci was born in Ales, Italy, on the island of Sardinia. He was the fourth of seven sons of Francesco Gramsci, a low-level official. His father's family was Arbëreshë and the family name was probably related to Gramsh, an Albanian town. Francesco's financial difficulties and troubles with the police forced the family to move about through several villages in Sardinia until they finally settled in Ghilarza.

In 1898 Francesco was convicted of embezzlement, unjustly it turned out, and imprisoned, reducing his family to destitution and forcing the young Antonio to abandon his schooling and work at various casual jobs until his father's release in 1904. The boy suffered from health problems: a malformation of the spine owing to a childhood accident left him hunch-backed and underdeveloped, while he was also plagued by various internal disorders throughout his life.