Third World

The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO or the Warsaw Pact.

The demographer, anthropologist, and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine L'Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term third world (tiers monde), referring to countries that were playing a small role in international trade and business.

Third Worldism is a political movement that argues for the unity of third-world nations against first-world influence and the principle of non-interference in other countries' domestic affairs.

The notion has been criticized as providing a fig leaf for human rights violations and political repression by dictatorships.

He claimed that the attachment of Third World status to a particular country was not based on any stable economic or political criteria, and was a mostly arbitrary process.

[14] The only characteristic that Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid," which he strongly opposed.

The aggregate term "Third World" was challenged as misleading even during the Cold War period, because it had no consistent or collective identity among the countries it supposedly encompassed.

[1] By the end of the Cold War, many Third World countries had adopted capitalist or communist economic models and continued to receive support from the side they had chosen.

[8] These countries became the targets for aid and support from governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and individuals from wealthier nations.

[16] The general definition of the Third World can be traced back to the history that nations positioned as neutral and independent during the Cold War were considered as Third World Countries, and normally these countries are defined by high poverty rates, lack of resources, and unstable financial standing.

The differences among nations of the Third World are continually growing throughout time, and it will be hard to use the Third World to define and organize groups of nations based on their common political arrangements since most countries live under diverse creeds in this era, such as Mexico, El Salvador, and Singapore, which each have their distinct political systems.

[18] The Third World categorization becomes anachronistic since its political classification and economic system are distinct to be applied in today's society.