manent members of the UN Security Council, a founding
member of NATO, and of the Commonwealth, the UK pursues a global
approach to foreign policy; it currently is weighing the degree of
its integration with continental Europe. A member of the EU, it
chose to remain outside the Economic and Monetary Union for the time
being. Constitutional reform is also a significant issue in the UK.
The Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, and the
Northern Ireland Assembly were established in 1999, but the latter
was suspended until May 2007 due to wrangling over the peace process.

United States
Britain's American colonies broke with the mother
country in 1776 and were recognized as the new nation of the United
States of America following the Treaty of Paris in 1783. During the
19th and 20th centuries, 37 new states were added to the original 13
as the nation expanded across the North American continent and
acquired a number of overseas possessions. The two most traumatic
experiences in the nation's history were the Civil War (1861-65), in
which a northern Union of states defeated a secessionist Confederacy
of 11 southern slave states, and the Great Depression of the 1930s,
an economic downturn during which about a quarter of the labor force
lost its jobs. 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 and inflation, and rapid advances in technology.

United States Pacific Island Wildlife Refuges
All of the following
US Pacific island territories except Midway Atoll constitute the
Pacific Remote Islands National Wildlife Refuge Complex and as such
are managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service of the US Department of
the Interior. Midway Atoll NWR has been included in a Refuge Complex
with the Hawaiian Islands NWR and also designated as part of
Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument. These remote refuges are
the most widespread collection of marine- and terrestrial-life
protected areas on the planet under a single country's jurisdiction.
They sustain many endemic species including corals, fish, shellfish,
marine mammals, seabirds, water birds, land birds, insects, and
vegetation not found elsewhere.
Baker Island: The US took possession of the island in 1857, and its
guano deposits were mined by US an