expenditures--dollar figure: $36.7 billion (FY98/99)

Military expenditures--percent of GDP: 2.6% (FY98/99)

Transnational Issues

Disputes--international: Northern Ireland issue with Ireland
(historic peace agreement signed 10 April 1998); Gibraltar issue
with Spain; Argentina claims Falkland Islands (Islas Malvinas);
Argentina claims South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands;
Mauritius claims island of Diego Garcia in British Indian Ocean
Territory; Rockall continental shelf dispute involving Denmark,
Iceland, and Ireland (Ireland and the UK have signed a boundary
agreement in the Rockall area); territorial claim in Antarctica
(British Antarctic Territory); Seychelles claims Chagos Archipelago
in British Indian Ocean Territory

Illicit drugs: gateway country for Latin American cocaine
entering the European market; producer and major consumer of
synthetic drugs, synthetic precursor chemicals; transshipment point
for Southwest Asian heroin; money-laundering center

======================================================================

@United States
-------------

Introduction

Background: Buoyed by victories in World Wars I and II and the
end of the Cold War in 1991, the US remains the world's most
powerful nation-state. The economy is marked by steady growth, low
unemployment, low inflation, and rapid advances in technology. The
biggest cloud over this affluent society is the distribution of
gains--since 1975 most of the increase in national income has gone to
the 20% of people at the top of the income ladder.

Geography

Location: North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean
and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico

Geographic coordinates: 38 00 N, 97 00 W

Map references: North America

Area:
total: 9,629,091 sq km
land: 9,158,960 sq km
water: 470,131 sq km
note: includes only the 50 states and District of Columbia

Area--comparative: about one-half the size of Russia; about
three-tenths the size of Africa; about one-half the size of South
America (or slightly larger than Brazil); slightly larger than
China; about two and one-half times the size of Western Europe

Land boundaries:
total: 12,248 km
border countries: Canada 8,893 km (including 2,477 km with Alaska),
Cuba 29 km (US Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay), Mexico 3,326 km
note: Guantanamo Naval Base is leased by the