2000s

The 2000s is the current, spanning from  to. The decade has been dominated by several wide-ranging topics, including international trade, concerns over and, the explosion in , a growing concern with international  and , and an escalation of the social issues of the.

Economic developments have largely focused on the explosion of 's economic and political potential, with experiencing immense, moving toward the status of a regional power and billion-consumer market. , along with many other developing countries, has seen a rapid increase in its economy, accelerated by increased technological integration with the economies of more developed countries. A trend connecting economic and political events in, Asia, and the is the rapidly increasing demand for , which &mdash; along with fewer new  finds, greater extraction costs, and political turmoil &mdash; forced two other trends:  a soar in the price of petroleum products and a subsequent push by governments and businesses to promote the development of.

Technological advancements have been drastic. technologies have advanced, not only with computers and the widespread proliferation of, but also with , , and various digital music formats. Having an address, a, and a  are quickly becoming as common in many western countries as having a  set was in the ; many in the West feel that it has become necessary to own a cell phone and email address to maintain social connections and. The use of internet commerce has also become widely popular, with such online elements as checking accounts, travel reservations, stock trading, and retail shopping.

Most major political developments in the 2000s revolved around the, which was triggered by the and led to the  and the. These and other events have dominated the news almost daily, including the many controversies regarding their justifications and consequences. The Iraq War, launched in, has generated extreme controversy around the world, with many questioning its justification or the United States' motives. Tensions have escalated in the because of the War in Iraq and the. generated a nuclear crisis by withdrawing from the and conducting a.

Social issues which became more pronounced included issues pertaining to, in particular the issue of , which was legalized by some major developed nations, including and , but met continued resistance in many countries and in most U.S. states. Other social issues of concern are, , (particularly in the ), and , with its possible connection to.

Names of the decade
In contrast to the decades from to, which are called "the Twenties", "the Sixties", and the like, the 2000s have no universally-accepted name. Some people refer to the decade simply as the "two thousands" while others may refer to it as the "twenty hundreds"; this can be written as "the 2000s" or "the '00s". But simply saying "the 2000s" can cause confusion, since this could refer to the entire 21st century, or even the entire millennium. The most common format (in the English language) in referring to the individual years is to read out the full name; i.e. 2008 as "two thousand eight". Less commonly, but occasionally in the media, a shorter version such as "twenty-oh-seven" is used.

Determining a name for the decade has been problematic, especially in the United States. The term "Noughties" has been suggested by the , but this term has not gained general currency, especially outside the.

Other proposed names include:
 * aughts, aughties, the Twenty-O's, and double-aughts, from 'aught', which, like "naught" means "zero" (aughts was one of the more popular terms in the early 20th century)
 * nils and nillies, from "nil", meaning "nothing"
 * 2Ks, from the Greek term khilioi, meaning "thousand"
 * ōzies, from the practice of calling the number zero 'O'
 * zeroes, double zeroes, ohs, double ohs, and oh-ohs

The declared the decade of 2000–2009 as the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World."