Third World
The Future Of The Third World
Because the idea of the Third World was partly created and largely sustained by the logic of bipolarity that governed the Cold War era, some argue that in a unipolar world, in which the United States is the only global gendarme, to claim the same degree of existence for the Third World as in the past would be tantamount to a "fantasy" with little conceptual and analytical utility. Still, some factors persist to make the Third World still relevant as a concept. In analytical terms, the Third World idea identifies a group of states whose common history of colonialism has left them in a position of economic and political weakness in the global system. In this sense, the recent alignment in global politics neither undermines the coherence of the idea nor justifies its abandonment. The Third World may continue to exist in this sense, but the changing context confronts it with new challenges and opportunities.
See also Capitalism; Development; Economics; Empire and Imperialism; Globalization; International Order.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Amin, Samir. Delinking: Towards a Polycentric World. London: Zed, 1990.
——. "Reflections on the International System." In Beyond Cultural Imperialism: Globalization, Communication, and the New International Order, edited by Peter Golding and Phil Harris, 10–24. London: Sage, 1997.
Denoon, Donald. "Third World" In The Social Science Encyclopedia. Edited by Adam Kuper and Jessica Kuper. London and New York: Routledge, 1985.
Frank, G. Dependent Capitalism and Development. New York: Monthly Review, 1978.
Haynes, Jeffrey. Third World Politics: A Concise Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
Independent Commisson of the South on Development Issues. The Challenge to the South. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.
McGrew, A. "The "Third World" in the New Global Order." In Poverty and Development in the 1990s, edited by Tim Allen and Alan Thomas. Oxford: Oxford University Press in association with The Open University, 1992.
Merriam, Allen H. "What Does 'Third World' Mean?" In The Third World: States of Mind and Being, edited by Jim Norwine and Alfonso Gonzalez. Boston: Unwin Hyman, 1988.
Parkins, Colin. "North-South Relations and Globalization after the Cold War." In Global Politics: An Introduction, edited by Charlotte Bretherton and Geoffrey Ponton. Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.
Rangel, Charles. "Third World" Ideology and Western Reality: Manufacturing Political Myth. New Brunswick, N.J., and Oxford: Transaction, 1986.
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1981.
Roy, Ash Narain. The "Third World" in the Age of Globalisation: Requiem or New Agenda? London and New York: Zed, 1999.
Toye, J. F. J. Dilemmas of Development. Oxford: Blackwell, 1987.
Tussie, Diana. "Introduction." In her Latin America in the World Economy: New Perspectives. Aldershot, U.K.: Gower, 1983.
Wallerstein, Immanuel. The Politics of the World-Economy. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Wells, Clark. The UN, UNESCO, and the Politics of Knowledge. New York: St. Martin's, 1987.
Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Additional topics
- Third World - Bibliography
- Third World - Theories Of "third World" Development
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