| 1973 | Yom Kippur War; OPEC oil embargo |
| 1979 | Islamic revolution in Iran; second oil shock |
| 1980 | Rhodesian white-minority rulers surrender power and the nation is renamed Zimbabwe |
| 1980–1988 | Iran-Iraq War |
| 1982 | Falklands (or Malvinas) War leads to the collapse of the Argentine junta |
| 1985 | Glasnost leads to greater freedom of speech and expression in the Soviet Union |
| 1987 | Palestinian intifada |
| 1989 | Collapse of Berlin Wall; “NO” campaign in Chile; Tiananmen Square protests suppressed in China |
| 1989–1991 | Fall of communism in Soviet Union and eastern Europe |
| 1990–1991 | Persian Gulf War |
| 1991 | Congress Party in India embraces Western capitalist reforms |
| 1991–2001 | Civil war in Yugoslavia |
| 1993 | Formation of the European Union |
| 1994 | North American Free Trade Agreement goes into effect between Canada, Mexico, and the United States |
| 1994 | Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa |
| 2003–2011 | Second Persian Gulf War |
| 2007 | Hamas seizes control of Gaza Strip from Palestinian Authority |
| 2009–2014 | Popular uprisings and protests across the Middle East |