Nation: A large group of people bound together by common tradition and culture and usually language. Sometimes used synonymously with state, but this can be misleading, since one state may contain many nations. For example, Great Britain is a state, but contains the English, Scottish, Welsh, and part of the Irish nations. Single nations may also be scattered across many states, as is now the case with the Kurds. (Fast Times 1999: http://www.fast-times.com/political.html)
National liberation: Usually refers to the freeing of a country from colonial rule, or from oppressive rule of any kind. Wars to accomplish this end are often called wars of national liberation; guerrilla groups (usually leftist) that fight to overthrow their governments sometimes call themselves national liberation armies. (Fast Times 1999: http://www.fast-times.com/political.html)
National minority: Segments of a transnational people with a history of organized political autonomy whose kindred control an adjacent state, but who now constitute a minority in the state in which they reside. (Gurr & Haxton 1996: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/minrept1.htm)
National people: Regionally concentrated groups that have lost their autonomy to a state dominated by other groups but still preserve some cultural and linguistic distinctiveness and seek to protect or reestablish some degree of politically separate existence. (Gurr & Haxton, 1996: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/minrept1.htm)
Near crisis: A situation in which the outbreak of major violence is probable. It is characterized by sporadic low-level violent acts; increasing use of inflammatory rhetoric; taking up of arms and threats; and decreasing communication. (Lund 1996: 149)
Necklacing: The practice of using a car tire filled with gasoline to burn a political opponent or member of opposing group. This method has been used as a tool of extreme persecution and terrorism in South Africa and elsewhere.
A) A standard diplomatic technique used by states to harmonize their interests or live with their differences by taking into account respective needs and power potential. Negotiations often precede, accompany, or follow other, more violent forms of interaction. Negotiation takes place with a view to achieving either identification of common interests and agreement on joint or parallel action; recognition of conflicting interests and agreement on compromise; or, more often than not, some combination of both. (Berridge, 1995; cited by Schmid 1998: http://www.fewer.org/pubs/thes.htm)
B) The act or process of conferring with another in order to come to terms or reach an agreement. (Houghton Mifflin Company 1982: 836)
Neo-colonialization: Term for contemporary policies adopted by international and western “First World” nations and organizations that exert regulation, power and control over poorer “Third World” nations, often in the form of humanitarian help or aid. These policies are distinct from but related to the “original” period of colonization of Africa, Asia, and the Americas by European nations. (UMD Diversity Dictionary, http://www.inform.umd.edu/EdRes/Topic/Diversity/Reference/divdic.html)
Noise: This term, often used to explain intelligence failures, refers to critical information being lost in a sea of conflicting or contradictory signals, or due to preoccupation with other matters. For example, in the early stages of the 1994 Rwandan crisis, the international community's attention was on other problem areas and some of the early warnings "got lost in the noise."
Nomenklatura: The practice of appointing loyal political agents to guide and control civil and military institutions often without regard to education and training, technical competence, specialization, or experience. (Adam 1995: 71)
Nonalignment: Refusal to join in coalitions or entangling alliances with other states, especially with major power contenders, in the interest of avoiding embroilment in their quarrels, struggles, and wars. It is a frequent stance of newly independent, precariously established, or weak nations. (Freeman 1997: 198)
Non-intervention: The principle that a nation should not interfere in the internal affairs of another during peacetime. The principle is often little adhered to, especially in regions a great power regards as its own sphere of influence. (Fast Times 1999: http://www.fast-times.com/political.html)
Nonviolence: The policy of pursuing political goals through peaceful protests involving large numbers of people. Nonviolence as a weapon of protest was put into action by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and his followers in India in their campaign for independence from Britain. Nonviolence, coupled with civil disobedience, was also a main plank of the American civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, led by Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-68). Nonviolence can be effective because it carries a moral authority that violence does not and thus often wins widespread sympathy for protesters. (Fast Times 1999: http://www.fast-times.com/political.html)