The 3rd World

It's old geopolitical and historic scope
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO, or the Communist Bloc. The United States, Western European nations and their allies represented the First World, while the Soviet Union, China, Cuba, and their allies represented the Second World. This terminology provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three groups based on social, political, cultural and economic divisions.

The Third World was normally seen to include many countries with colonial pasts in Africa, Latin America, Oceania and Asia. It was also sometimes taken as synonymous with countries in the Non-Aligned Movement. In the dependency theory of thinkers like Raúl Prebisch, Walter Rodney, Theotonio dos Santos, and Andre Gunder Frank, the Third World has also been connected to the world economic division as "periphery" countries in the world system that is dominated by the "core" countries.

Due to the complex history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition of the Third World. Some countries in the Communist Bloc, such as Cuba, were often regarded as "Third World". Because many Third World countries were extremely poor, and non-industrialized, it became a stereotype to refer to poor countries as "third world countries", yet the "Third World" term is also often taken to include newly industrialized countries like Brazil, India and China (see also: BRIC). Historically, some European countries were part of the non-aligned movement and a few were and are very prosperous, including Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland.

Over the past few decades since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the term Third World has been used interchangeably with the least developed countries, the Global South, and developing countries to describe poorer countries that have struggled to attain steady economic development, a term that often includes "Second World" countries like Laos. This usage, however, has become less preferred in recent years.

It's modern economic scope
Most Third World countries are former colonies. Having gained independence, many of these countries, especially smaller ones, were faced with the challenges of nation- and institution-building on their own for the first time. Due to this common background, many of these nations were "developing" in economic terms for most of the 20th century, and many still are. This term, used today, generally denotes countries that have not developed to the same levels as OECD countries, and are thus in the process of developing.

The only characteristic that Peter Bauer found common in all Third World countries was that their governments "demand and receive Western aid," the giving of which he strongly opposed. Thus, 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.

It's modern political aspect
The "Three Worlds Theory" developed by Mao Zedong is different from the Western theory of the Three Worlds or Third World. For example, in the Western theory, China and India belong respectively to the second and third worlds, but in Mao's theory both China and India are part of the Third World which he defined as consisting of exploited nations.

"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. Groups most notable for expressing and exercising this idea are the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the Group of 77 which provide a base for relations and diplomacy between not just the third-world countries, but between the third-world and the first and second worlds. The notion has been criticized as providing a fig-leaf for human-rights violations and political repression by dictatorships.

Over the last few decades, global population growth has largely been focused in Third World countries (which often have higher birth rates than developed countries). As populations expand in poorer countries, rural people are flocking to cities in an extensive urban migration that is resulting in the creation of massive shanty towns and slums.

The concept has been criticised for being teleological, a historical and reflecting a Western bias of what constitutes a successful state. Inherent in the concept of the failed state is the assumed association with terrorism and other transnational threats. They are sometimes described as incubators for international terrorism.

Etymology
French demographer, anthropologist and historian Alfred Sauvy, in an article published in the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, August 14, 1952, coined the term Third World, referring to countries that were unaligned with either the Communist Soviet bloc or the Capitalist NATO bloc during the Cold War. His usage was a reference to the Estates-General of 1789's Third Estate, the commoners of France who, before and during the French Revolution, opposed the clergy and nobles, who composed the First Estate and Second Estate, respectively. Sauvy wrote, "This third world ignored, exploited, despised like the third estate also wants to be something." (A Literal translation from French) He conveyed the concept of political Non-Aligned Movement with either the capitalist or communist bloc.

A "Great Divergence" and "Great Convergence" theory
Many times there is a clear distinction between First and Third Worlds. When talking about the Global North and the Global South, the majority of the time the two go hand in hand. People refer to the two as "Third World/South" and "First World/North" because the Global North is more affluent and developed, whereas the Global South is less developed and often poorer. To counter this mode of thought, some scholars began proposing the idea of a change in world dynamics that began in the late 1980s, and termed it the Great Convergence. As Jack A. Goldstone and his colleagues put it, "in the twentieth century, the Great Divergence peaked before the First World War and continued until the early 1970s, then, after two decades of indeterminate fluctuations, in the late 1980s it was replaced by the Great Convergence as the majority of Third World countries reached economic growth rates significantly higher than those in most First World countries".

Others have observed a return to Cold War-era alignments, this time with substantial changes between 1990–2015 in geography, the world economy and relationship dynamics between current and emerging world powers; not necessarily redefining the classic meaning of First, Second, and Third World terms, but rather which countries belong to them by way of association to which world power or coalition of countries — such as G7, the European Union, OECD; G20, OPEC, BRICS, ECOWAS, ASEAN; the African Union, and the Eurasian Union.

Western bloc
The USA, UK, France, W. Germany, Japan and their allies.

Eastern bloc
The USSR and it's allies.

Chinese\Sino-bloc
The PRC and it's allies.

Non-Aligned states
All nations in there own blocks like the Arab League or not aligned to any side like The Vatican and Bhutan.


 * Note that on occasion the Arab League and it's allies were listed as the "Arab Bloc" or "Middle Eastern Bloc" for places like Egypt, Jordan and Oman; rather than showing them as part of the non-aligned states.

[Other] Western economies
The USA, UK, France, W. Germany, Japan and their free market allies.

Centrally planned economies
The USSR, PRC, Cuba and their state run allies.

Advanced developing nations
Those like Mexico, UAE and Turkey that are nearly up to Western levels or CEP levels.

Developing nations
Those that are moving to an industrial status like Brazil, S. Africa and Colombia.

Underdeveloped nations
Minimally developed places like Nepal, Kiribati and PNG and These were agrarian rural nowheres like Tarawa Atoll and Bhutan, war-torn death-holes like Afghanistan and famine struct death-holes like Ethiopia (which also included Eritrea back then).

The great 5 [Western] economy
They were marked by high standards of living, heavy material gain, high social fulfillment, high social mobility and a generous welfare system.

The nations were:
 * 1) Sweden
 * 2) Switzerland
 * 3) Japan
 * 4) Finland
 * 5) Singapore


 * Note that Hong Kong was some times added if colonies were included in the list and the UAE was also occasionally added to the list in the late 1980s.

[Other] Western economies
The USA, UK, France, W. Germany and their free market allies.


 * Note that Hong Kong was usually added if colonies were included in the list and the UAE and Kuwait were regularly added to the list in the late 1980s.

Centrally planned economies
The USSR, Cuba and their allies.

Advanced developing nations
Those like Mexico, Brazil and Turkey that are nearly up to Western levels or CEP levels.

Developing nations
Those that are moving to an industrial status like China, S. Africa and Colombia.

Underdeveloped nations
Minimally developed places like Nepal, Kiribati and PNG.

Least developed countries
These were agrarian rural nowheres like Tarawa Atoll and Bhutan, war-torn death-holes like Afghanistan and famine struct death-holes like Ethiopia (which also included Eritrea back then).

The concept
A failed state is a political body that has disintegrated to a point where basic conditions and responsibilities of a sovereign government no longer function properly. Likewise, when a nation weakens and its standard of living declines, it introduces the possibility of governmental collapse.

 The Fund for Peace characterizes a failed state as having the following characteristics: 
 * 1) Loss of control of its territory, or of the monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force therein.
 * 2) Erosion of legitimate authority to make collective decisions.
 * 3) Inability to provide public services.
 * 4) Inability to interact with other states as a full member of the international community.

Common characteristics of a failing state include a central government so weak or ineffective that it has little practical control over much of its territory and there is a non-provision of public services. When this happens widespread corruption and criminality, the intervention of non-state actors, the appearance of refugees and the involuntary movement of populations, and sharp economic decline can occur.

The level of government control required to avoid being considered a failed state varies considerably amongst authorities. Furthermore, the declaration that a state has "failed" is generally controversial and, when made authoritatively, may carry significant geopolitical consequences.

A relevant contribution to the field of failed states and its attributes was made by J. Goldstone in his paper "Pathways to State Failure". What differs him from other definitions is the fact that to him, a state is failed if it lost both its effectiveness and legitimacy. Effectiveness means the capability to carry out state functions such as providing security or levying taxes. Legitimacy means the support of important groups of the population, it is dissociated from democracy as a government/leader can be legitimate in the eyes of his people without being elected. Goldstone coupled pathways to state failure to his conception of a lack of both effectiveness and legitimacy. A state that retains one of the two aspects is not failed as such; however it is in great danger of failing soon if nothing is being done.

Five possible pathways to state failure are:
 * 1) Escalation of communal group (ethnic or religious) conflicts. Examples: Rwanda, Liberia, Yugoslavia, Lebanon.
 * 2) State predation (corrupt or crony corralling of resources at the expense of other groups). Examples: Nicaragua, Philippines, Iran.
 * 3) Regional or guerrilla rebellion. Examples: Colombia, Vietnam.
 * 4) Democratic collapse (leading to civil war or coup d’etat). Examples: Nigeria, Madagascar, Nepal.
 * 5) Succession or reform crisis in authoritarian states. Examples: Indonesia under Suharto, Iran under the Shah, the Soviet Union under Gorbachev.

Although Goldstone identifies pathways to state failure he is quick to warn about simplifying the issue. Often (re)-building either legitimacy or effectiveness implies a trade off with the other aspect of the state. Since these states are missing one of the two pillars to stability, it is dangerous to initiate such a trade off as it takes time to rebuild trust from the population. Although state failure has been studied for decades by numerous scholars, it remains a contested concept vulnerable to political, ideological and economical agendas.

The Fragile States Index published its eleventh annual report in 2015, prepared by the Fund for Peace and published by Foreign Policy Magazine. The Index categorizes states in four categories, with variations in each category. The Alert category is in dark red, Warning in orange, Stable in yellow and Sustainable in green.

The FSI total score is out of 120, and in 2015 there were 178 states making the ranking. Initially, the FSI only ranked 75 countries in 2005. The FSI uses two criteria by which a country qualifies to be included in the list: first of all, the country must be a United Nations member state, and secondly, there must be a significant sample size of content and data available for that country to allow for meaningful analysis. There are three groupings: social, economic and political with overall twelve indicators.

Social Indicators:
 * 1) Demographic Pressures
 * 2) Refugees or Internally Displaced Persons
 * 3) Group Grievance
 * 4) Human Flight and Brain Drain

Economic Indicators:
 * 1) Uneven Economic Development
 * 2) Poverty and Economic Decline

Political and Military Indicators:
 * 1) State Legitimacy
 * 2) Public Services.
 * 3) Human Rights and Rule of Law.
 * 4) Security Apparatus.
 * 5) Factionalized Elites.
 * 6) External Intervention.

The indicators each count for 10, adding up to a total of 120. However, in order to add up to 120, the indicator scores are rounded up-or-down to the nearest one decimal place. In the 2015 Index, South Sudan ranked number one, Somalia number two, and the Central African Republic number three. Finland is currently the most stable and sustainable country in the list.

According to the political theories of Max Weber, a state could be said to "succeed" if it maintains a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force within its borders. When this is broken (e.g., through the dominant presence of warlords, paramilitary groups, or terrorism), the very existence of the state becomes dubious, and the state becomes a failed state. The difficulty of determining whether a government maintains "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force", which includes the problems of the definition of "legitimate", means it is not clear precisely when a state can be said to have "failed". The problem of legitimacy can be solved by understanding what Weber intended by it. Weber clearly explains that only the state has the means of production necessary for physical violence (politics as vocation). This means that the state does not require legitimacy for achieving monopoly on having the means of violence (de facto), but will need one if it needs to use it (de jure).

Typically, the term means that the state has been rendered ineffective and is not able to enforce its laws uniformly or provide basic goods and services to its citizens because of (variously) high crime rates, extreme political corruption, an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics, and cultural situations in which traditional leaders wield more power than the state over a certain area. Other factors of perception may be involved. A derived concept of "failed cities" has also been launched, based on the notion that while a state may function in general, polities at the substate level may collapse in terms of infrastructure, economy and social policy. Certain areas or cities may even fall outside state control, becoming a de facto ungoverned part of the state.

Ulrich Schneckener’s (2006) stage model defines three core elements, monopoly of violence, legitimacy and rule of law. The typology is based on the security first logic and thus, shows the relevance of the monopoly of violence in comparison to the other two while at the same time acting as the precondition for a functioning state. His four statehood types are: (1) consolidated and consolidating states, (2) weak states, (3) failing and (4) collapsed/failed states. The first type is directed towards functioning states; all core functions of the state are functioning in the long term. In weak states, the monopoly of force is still intact, but the other two areas show serious deficits. Failing states lack the monopoly of force, while the other areas function at least partially. Finally, collapsed or failed states are dominated by parastatal structures characterised by actors trying to create a certain internal order, but the state cannot sufficiently serve the three core elements.

Officaly suggested general criteria of the 2010s

 *  Different sources have included the following: 


 * 1) “Civil war”
 * 2) “infant mortality”
 * 3) “declining levels of GDP per capita”
 * 4) “inflation”
 * 5) “unable to provide basic services”
 * 6) “state policies and institutions are weak”
 * 7) “corruption”
 * 8) “lack accountability”
 * 9) “unwilling to adequately assure the provision of security and basic services to significant portions of their populations” (wouldn’t this include the US?)
 * 10) “inability to collect taxes” (wouldn’t this include the UK?)
 * 11) “group-based inequality and environmental decay.”
 * 12) “wars and other man-made disasters”
 * 13) “citizens vulnerable to a whole range of shocks”

The relivent equivalent factors used in the mid to late 1980s
The reverent equivalent factors were used in the mid to late 1980s. The foods supply, border integrity, currency integrity, urban phones, joblessness, civil war and loss of state power, plagues, death before 45 years of age and GWEN factors were raised at times as possible indicators to. These are also measly spotted by citizens of the world's nations despite of the governments' lyres and denials.

Foods supply
This is failed if there is a general lack of food other than UN aid, it is to expensive to by, horded on mass by suppliers and\or the nation is in mass starvation.


 * 1985= Ethiopia, Sudan, Bangladesh, Romania and India.
 * 2015= Somalia, N. Korea, S. Sudan, Greece and Yemen.

Border integrity
This is failed when hordes of refugees, smugglers, enemy agents and\or hostile troops pour in and\or out freely.


 * 1985= GDR, Vietnam, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Cuba.
 * 2015= Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Eritrea and Syria.

Urban phones
This is failed by most city dwellers not having a house phone or a near by phone booth.


 * 1985= Bhutan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, CAR and Chad.
 * 2015=  Bhutan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, CAR and Chad.

Joblessness
This is failed by an unemployment rate of over 25% (it includes illicit shadow economy, but excludes subsistence farming for self preservation).


 * 1985= N. Korea, Poland, India, Chad and Romania.
 * 2015= UK, USA, Greece, N. Korea and Zimbabwe.

Civil war and loss of state power
This is failed by a legitimate de-facto government fatally loosing power to organized crime, powerful business cabals, rival governments in exile and\or rebel held places, places declaring UDI from it and\or a civil war.


 * 1985= Afghanistan, USSR, Colombia, Ethiopia and El Slvador.
 * 2015= Afghanistan, Ethiopia, USA, S. Sudan and Mexico.

Plagues
This is failed by a massive and long term outbreak in a country like AIDS has done in parts of Sub-Saharan Africa.


 * 1985= Malaria hot-spots.
 * 2015= Zika, AIDS and Malaria hot-spots.

Currency integrity
This is failed by hyper inflation, mass forgery and\or an exchange rate of over 500 to 1 US $.


 * 1985= Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Italy and Venezuela.
 * 2015= UK, India, Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Sweden.

death before 45 years of age
This is failed when average life expectancy falls to below 45 years of age.


 * 1985= Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, CAR and Chad.
 * 2015= Afghanistan, Mozambique, Angola, CAR and Liberia.

GWEN (gas, water, electricity [is] nowhere)
This is failed by the inability of most citizens to gas, water and\or electricity supplies.


 * 1985= Bhutan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, CAR and Chad.
 * 2015= Bhutan, Zimbabwe, Somalia, CAR and Chad.

The Fourth World
The Fourth World is an extension of the Three-World Model, used variably to refer to Sub-populations socially excluded from global society, like:
 * 1) Hunter-gatherer, nomadic, pastoral, and some subsistence farming
 * 2) Peoples living beyond the modern industrial norm.
 * 3) Sub-populations existing in a First World country, but with the living standards of those of a Third World, or developing country.
 * 4) Long term refugee camps of the 'tent city' type.

Newly industrialized countries
The category of newly industrialized country (NIC) is a socioeconomic classification applied to several countries around the world by political scientists and economists.

NICs are countries whose economies have not yet reached a developed country's status but have, in a macroeconomic sense, outpaced their developing counterparts. Another characterization of NICs is that of countries undergoing rapid economic growth (usually export-oriented). Incipient or ongoing industrialization is an important indicator of an NIC. In many NICs, social upheaval can occur as primarily rural, or agricultural, populations migrate to the cities, where the growth of manufacturing concerns and factories can draw many thousands of laborers.


 *  NICs usually share some other common features, including: 
 * 1) Strong political leaders.
 * 2) A switch from agricultural to industrial economies, especially in the manufacturing sector.
 * 3) An increasingly open-market economy, allowing free trade with other countries in the world.
 * 4) Large national corporations operating in several continents.
 * 5) Strong capital investment from foreign countries.
 * 6) Political leadership in their area of influence.
 * 7) Rapid growth of urban centers and population.
 * 8) Rising living standards for most employed urban people.


 *  Current members are: 
 * 1) South Africa
 * 2)  Mexico
 * 3)  Brazil
 * 4)  China
 * 5)  India
 * 6)  Indonesia
 * 7)  Malaysia
 * 8)  Philippines
 * 9)  Thailand
 * 10)  Turkey

BRICS
BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. Originally the first four were grouped as "BRIC" (or "the BRICs"), before the induction of South Africa in 2010. The BRICS members are all leading developing or newly industrialized countries, but they are distinguished by their large, sometimes fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional affairs; all five are G-20 members. Since 2009, the BRICS nations have met annually at formal summits. Russia hosted the group's seventh summit in July 2015. India hosted the 8th BRICS conference in Goa on 15th and 16th Oct 2016. The term does not include countries such as South Korea, Mexico and Turkey for which other acronyms and group associations were later created.

The term "BRIC" was coined in 2001 by then-chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Jim O'Neill, in his publication Building Better Global Economic:BRICs. The foreign ministers of the initial four BRIC states (Brazil, Russia, India, and China) met in New York City in September 2006 at the margins of the General Debate of the UN General Assembly, beginning a series of high-level meetings. A full-scale diplomatic meeting was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia, on 16 June 2009.

As of 2015, the five BRICS countries represent over 3.6 billion people, or half of the world population; all five members are in the top 25 of the world by population, and four are in the top 10. The five nations have a combined nominal GDP of US$16.6 trillion, equivalent to approximately 22% of the gross world product, combined GDP (PPP) of around US$37 trillion and an estimated US$4 trillion in combined foreign reserves. Overall the BRICS are forecasted to expand 4.6% in 2016, from an estimated growth of 3.9% in 2015. The World bank expects BRICS growth to pick up to 5.3% in 2017. The BRICS have received both praise and criticism from numerous commentators. Bilateral relations among BRICS nations have mainly been conducted on the basis of non-interference, equality, and mutual benefit.


 *  The members are: 
 * 1) Brazil
 * 2) Russia
 * 3) India
 * 4) China
 * 5) South Africa

South Africa and Brazil have not lived up to their expectations. with S. Africa declining fast and Brazil becoming a failed state due to endemic violence and corruption. India is also showing a similar tendency, but is no way as bad as in S. Africa or Brazil, while China and Russia are advancing fast.

The Southern Cone
The Southern Cone (Spanish: Cono Sur, Portuguese: Cone Sul) is a geographic region composed of the southernmost areas of South America, south of and around the Tropic of Capricorn. Traditionally, it covers Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and south to the junction between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, which is the closest continental area of Antarctica (1000 km). In terms of social and political geography, the Southern Cone comprises Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Southern Brazil and sometimes Paraguay.

High life expectancy, the highest Human Development Index of Latin America, high standard of living, significant participation in the global markets and the emerging economy of its members make the Southern Cone the most prosperous macro-region in Latin America.

Argentina, Chile and Uruguay have been increasingly included in the Western\developed block of nations since 2000; as have Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia since 1995.

The North West Africa Zone
The North West Africa Zone (French: Zone Afrique du Nord-Ouest) is a geo-ecanomic region composed of mostly Francophone slice of coastal N.W. Sub-Saharan Africa. Traditionally, it covers Senegal, Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo and Ghana. Cape Verde and Mali are also often included.

Higher life expectancy, the higher Human Development Index scores for Sub-Saharan Africa, higher standard of living and higher literacy rates mark them out. Only the Arab north has higher levels in Africa as a whole.

Also see

 * Help desk
 * OTL Decolonisation notes
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