Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

bail

(Encyclopedia)bail, in law, procurement of release from prison of a person awaiting trial or an appeal, by the deposit of security to insure his submission at the required time to legal authority. The monetary valu...

Dingell, John David, Jr.

(Encyclopedia)Dingell, John David, Jr., 1928–2019, American congressman, b. Colorado Springs, Colo.; grad. Georgetown Univ. (B.S., 1949; J.D., 1952). He served in the Army (1944–46) and after a brief career in ...

O'Neill, Paul Henry

(Encyclopedia)O'Neill, Paul Henry, 1935–2020, American business executive and government official, b. St. Louis, Mo., grad. Fresno State College (B.A.) and Indiana Univ. (M.P.A.). A Republican, O'Neill began his ...

Blinken, Antony John

(Encyclopedia)Blinken, Antony John, 1962–, U.S. government official, b. Yonkers, N.Y., J.D. Columbia, 1988. A Democrat, he served (1994–2001) on the staff of the National Security Council under President Clinto...

secret police

(Encyclopedia)secret police, policing organization operating in secrecy for the political purposes of its government, often with terroristic procedures. Many states, including Chile, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Romania,...

cloud computing

(Encyclopedia)cloud computing, the delivery of shared computing resources over a network in a manner that makes accessing and configuring those resources convenient and largely independent of the use of a required ...

sanction

(Encyclopedia)sanction, in law and ethics, any inducement to individuals or groups to follow or refrain from following a particular course of conduct. All societies impose sanctions on their members in order to enc...

Ahtisaari, Martti Oiva Kalevi

(Encyclopedia)Ahtisaari, Martti Oiva Kalevi äkhˈtēsärrē [key], 1937–, Finnish diplomat, political leader, and international mediator; grad. Univ. of Oulu (1959). Joining (1965) the foreign affairs ministry, ...

Ridge, Tom

(Encyclopedia)Ridge, Tom (Thomas Joseph Ridge), 1945–, U.S. politician and government official, first secretary of Homeland Security (2003–5), b. Munhall, Pa. A graduate of Harvard (1967) and the Dickinson Scho...

Browse by Subject