This is the Finals of the Quiz on International Relations conducted at Ashoka University by Jibraan Mansoor and Aditya Khemka, two second year undergrads.

1. The Quiz on International
Relations
By Aditya Khemka and Jibraan Mansoor

2. Rules
• 30 questions
• (+10/-10) Pounce
• Window of 10 seconds
• +10 on direct, +10 on pass
• Quizmasters’ decision is final and binding

3. Question 1
Cocked Pistol – Never
Fast Pace – Cuban Missile Crisis, 1963
Round House – Post 9/11, Yom Kippur War
Double Take – Cold War, War on Terror
Fade Out – Normal Peacetime
What am I talking about?

4. Safety Slide

5. Answer 1
Levels of DEFCON

6. Question 2
‘We just happen to be a group of people on the Internet
who need—just kind of an outlet to do as we wish, that
we wouldn't be able to do in regular society. ...That's
more or less the point of it. Do as you wish. ... There's a
common phrase: 'we are doing it for the lulz.’
Who/What is being talked about?

7. Safety Slide

8. Answer 2
Anonymous

9. Question 3
‘From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, ______ has descended across
the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and
Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest
and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must
call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet
influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from
Moscow.’ Excerpt from Churchill’s Fulton Speech in 1946.
Fill in the blank to describe ‘that line’.

10. Safety Slide

11. Answer 3
The Iron Curtain

12. Question 4
Dear Mr. Andropov,
My name is ………….. I am ten years old. Congratulations on
your new job. I have been worrying about Russia and the
United States getting into a nuclear war. Are you going to vote
to have a war or not? If you aren't please tell me how you are
going to help to not have a war. This question you do not have
to answer, but I would like to know why you want to conquer
the world or at least our country. God made the world for us to
live together in peace and not to fight.
Sincerely,
…………….. Fill in the blanks with the name of this girl.

13. Safety Slide

14. Answer 4
Samantha Smith

15. Question 5
What does this represent?

16. Safety Slide

17. Answer 5
The Doomsday Clock (‘Minutes to Midnight’)

18. Question 6
What does this represent?

19. Safety Slide

20. Answer 6
Revelation of the Panama Papers

21. Question 7
X was a Ten-day North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) command post
exercise starting on November 2, 1983, that spanned Western Europe,
centered on the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe (SHAPE)
Headquarters in Casteau, north of the city of Mons. X simulated a period of
conflict escalation, culminating in a simulated DEFCON 1 coordinated nuclear
attack. Some historians have since argued that X was one of the times when
the world has come closest to nuclear war since the Cuban Missile Crisis of
1962. Identify X.

22. Safety Slide

23. Answer 7
Operation Able Archer

24. Question 8
X has in top 20 largest armies in the world according to Global Security.
Ironically under X’s constitution (Article 9), outlawing war as a means to settle
international disputes involving the state. Prime Minister of X’s perspective was
that retention of arms would be "meaningless" for the X in the post-war era,
because any substandard post-war military would no longer gain the respect of
the people, and would actually cause people to obsess with the subject of
rearming X.
Identify X

25. Safety Slide

26. Answer 8
Japan

27. Question 9
The Justice Department of the United States pondered an indictment of a US
President, X after his resignation. Justice Department memos show officials
struggling with Article I, Section 3, Clause 7 of the Constitution. The clause
says that a person removed from office by impeachment and conviction “shall
nevertheless be liable to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment,
according to the Law.” But there wasn’t a mention in the Constitution about a
President who had resigned from office. X’s pardon a month later ended that
debate. Identify the reason why X was supposed to be indicted.

28. Safety Slide

29. Answer 9
The Watergate scandal

30. Question 10
In a program conducted by X called “Operation Midnight
Climax”, Prostitutes were enlisted by the X to lure men to
‘safehouses’ in a place where they were administered LSD
without their consent. X Agents would then watch them
have sex with the prostitutes through 2-way mirrors. This
operation was under Operation MKUltra and helped X
to gain a lot of international secrets. Identify X.

31. Safety Slide

32. Answer 10
CIA

33. Question 11
What does this
map represent?

34. Safety Slide

35. Answer 11
CENTO

36. Question 12
The excerpt is from Xerxes’ speech, as he invades Greece, taken from Herodotus’
‘Histories’ in 480 B.C. This is believed to be the origin of an adage used originally by
Spain in the 16th and 17th centuries and then by Britain in the 19th and early 20th
centuries.
“…Once let us subdue this people, and those neighbors of theirs who hold the land of
Pelops the Phrygian, and we shall extend the Persian territory as far as God's heaven
reaches. The sun will never set over the Persian empire; for I will pass through Europe
from one end to the other, and with your aid make of all the lands which it contains one
country.”
To which country would you attribute this saying today (in geographical terms)?

37. Safety Slide

38. Answer 12
France

39. Question 13
A dummy tank, usually inflatable or wooden, is a type of decoy that either is intended to
be mistaken by an enemy for a real tank or used for training purposes. Dummy tanks
emerged soon after the introduction of real tanks in World War I, but were not widely
used until World War II.
Dummy Tanks were used again in 1990-2000s in the Balkans.
During the X war, the Y regularly placed dummy tanks in X which misled NATO forces
into thinking that they were destroying far more real tanks than actually occurred.
Identify X or Y.

40. Safety Slide

41. Answer 13
X: Kosovo
Y: Yugoslavia

42. Question 14
Operation Northwoods was a proposed false flag operation against
the X government, that originated within the Department of Defense
(DoD) and the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of the United States
government in 1962. The proposals called for the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA) or other U.S. government operatives to commit acts of
terrorism against American civilians and military targets, blaming it on
the X government, and using it to justify a war against X. The proposals
were rejected by the Kennedy administration.

43. Safety Slide

44. Answer 14
Cuba

45. Question 15
The Strategic Defense Initiative was President Ronald Reagan’s brainchild in accordance
with his criticism of the Mutually Assured Destruction principle. It would constitute ground,
air and space units which would act as a ‘shield’ against any nuclear attacks. The idea
was to neutralize ICBMs launched towards the United States before they struck, through
laser guided systems. The project was so ambitious (given it was 1980) that research
societies gave at least ten years before the project could become feasible. Due to its
science-fiction like nature, it was given a particular name inspired by George Lucas’ film.
This name (and the media’s liberal use of it), destroyed the credibility of the project as a
defensive initiative, as it projected an offensive capability.
What was this nickname?

46. Safety Slide

47. Answer 15
Star Wars

48. Question 16
This event has been called as the root cause for President Jimmy Carter to
lose his elections. In the country in question (X), it (being the event, Y) was
widely seen as a blow against the United States and its influence in X, including
its perceived attempts to undermine the Revolution and its longstanding
support of the recently overthrown Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who had led an
autocratic regime. Identify Y.

49. Safety Slide

50. Answer 16
Iran Hostage Crisis

51. Question 17
Vietnam had recently invited India to explore and exploit natural resources
within its 200-nauticalmile exclusive economic zone in the South China Sea
region where China has deployed fighter jets and surfaceto-air missiles to the
consternation of other countries. These explorations were supposed to be
conducted with Company Y but were called off due to increasing Chinese
pressure.
Identify Y.

52. Safety Slide

53. Answer 17
ONGC

54. Question 18
Pablo Picasso’s 1951 painting X
depicts acts of mass killing carried out
by 2 parties, and American forces in
the town of Sinchon during the war. It
is considered one of Picasso’s
communist works and echoes
Francisco Goya’s The Third of May.
Identify the event which inspired this
painting.

55. Safety Slide

56. Answer 18
Korean War

57. Question 19
In 1954 Gamal Abdel Nasser took control of X. One of Nasser's goals was to
modernize X. He wanted to build the Aswan Dam as a major part of the
improvement. The United States and the British had agreed to loan X the
money for the Dam, but then pulled their funding due to X’s military and political
ties to the Soviet Union. Nasser was angry. Nasser did something which has
been called as the Tripartite Aggression in X. Identify what is being talked
about.

58. Safety Slide

59. Answer 19
Suez Canal Crisis

60. Question 20
Only two countries X and Y in Africa have never be
colonised? X was founded by freed slaves and Y resisted
Italian attempts at colonization. Identify X and Y.

61. Safety Slide

62. Answer 20
Liberia and Ethiopia

63. Question 21
Connect.

64. Safety Slide

65. Answer 21
UN Charter

66. Question 22
Connect.

67. Safety Slide

68. Answer 22
Robert Capa/ Gerda Taro

69. Question 23
Connect.

70. Safety Slide

71. Answer 23
UN Peacekeeping Forces

72. Question 24
Israeli Ambassador to the UNSC, Mr. Prosor, handed out Oscars to countries/entities in the UNSC one day after
Hollywood’s Oscar ceremony. Fill in the blanks:
‘If the Oscars for Maintenance of International Peace and Security were given at the UN, I would not be surprised if
these candidates were awarded prizes.
In the Best Actor Category - for acting like a peace loving country while developing nuclear capabilities, denying the
Holocaust, and threatening the destruction of another member state... the Oscar goes to _______.
In the category for Best Supporting Actor - for its unrelenting support to the Assad Regime in killing hundreds of
thousands of civilians... the Oscar goes to ______.
In the category for Best Visual Effects - for making women disappear from the public sphere, the Oscar goes to...
surprise surprise... ________. No competition there.

73. Safety Slide

74. Answer 24
Best Actor: Iran
Best Supporting Actor: Hezbollah
Best Visual Effects: Saudi Arabia

75. Question 25
Identify the winners of the following conflicts.

76. Conflicts
Tet Offensive
Battle of Guadalcanal
Battle of Midway
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Gettysburg
Battle of Waterloo
Battle of the Somme
Battle of Yom Kippur
First Battle of Fallujah
Battle of the Bulge

77. Answer 25
1. North Vietnam
2. U.S.A
3. U.S.A
4. U.S.S.R
5. Union Army
6. Duke of Wellington

78. Question 26
Somoza Garcia was the President of Nicaragua but has been referred to as a
dictator who ruled from 1937-56. Although he was a ruthless dictator and
committed various war crimes but X continued supporting him secretly initially.
President of X made a statement while talking about Samoza and X’s relations
with Samoza.
"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch."
Identify the President

79. Safety Slide

80. Answer 26
Franklin D. Roosevelt