cesarean delivery) with a beating heart or other visible signs of life. Stillbirths,
miscarriages, and abortions are not included in the IMR. The cause of death is
not specific—a child may perish from any cause and still be included in the calcu-
lation. There is some controversy over how various countries report the IMR.
Some countries like the United States report all infants who show signs of life on
exiting the womb or birth canal and subsequently die as infant deaths, but other
countries employ different standards, including minimum infant weights or
lengths. The Infant Mortality Rate in countries using the latter standards will
appear to be artificially low when compared to those from countries where such
reporting techniques are not utilized. In addition, the IMR reported for many
developing countries may be lower than the actual figure because a significant
number of infant deaths may go unreported in rural areas, due to lack of contact
with medical providers or others responsible for reporting IMR data.
The IMR is often used as a measure of quality of life in a country, and may be
linked to continued viability of a political state. Indeed, the IMR is sometimes used
as a surrogate standard for economic and social development, and therefore has
much wider application than simply as a component of demographic dynamics.
Japan and several Scandinavian countries currently report the lowest IMR figures
among countries having a population of at least 1 million, and for 2008 both Japan
and Sweden are estimated to have an IMR below 3. On the other end of the scale,
many countries in Africa report IMR numbers exceeding 100. In fact, of the 30
countries with the highest estimated IMR computations for 2008, 28 were African
states. Infant deaths in these and other developing countries are often the result of
preventable causes, like dehydration due to diarrhea and dysentery. The introduction
and distribution of relatively simple and inexpensive treatments for these diseases
have resulted in significant advances in limiting infant mortality. Encouragingly, in
recent decades the IMR has declined considerably in both developed and underde-
veloped countries. In the United States, for example, the IMR fell from a figure of
almost 10 in 1990 to slightly above 6 in 2008, nearly a 50 percent drop in less than
two decades. Likewise, the global IMR has fallen dramatically, diminishing by more
than half between 1960 and 2008. And, although some countries continue to report
alarmingly high infant mortality in comparison to others, it should be noted that
the rate of infant death now is at historic lows in all portions of the world.
Irredentism
The desire of a state to “recover” territory previously lost to another state, typically
on the basis of uniting similar ethnic groups or on the grounds of prior historical
Irredentism 189