The third world: Concept and controversy

The Third World Remnant in the Developing World: Malaysia's Post-Pandemic Reality and International Relations of the Global South

“…The concept of the 'developing world' was not hugely different from its predecessor, the Third World (tiers monde), a term first coined by French scholars in the 1950s (Muni 1979). It included Europe's and the US's underdeveloped former colonies in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.…”

“…But the Third World's concept was still insufficient and, therefore, further investigated and expanded in the 1960s at the height of the Cold War when Western academicians began investigations into its political institutions and processesparticularly its distinctive political cultures and policy orientations. Economic development issues were becoming prominent, thus reducing the monopoly of security and strategic issues in the discourse of international politics (Muni 1979) and, by extension, over the Third World. Now, it is states, which were neither completely industrialised nor had free markets or centrally planned economies (associated with the First and Second Worlds), were seen as having designed viable and functional systems of and approaches to economic development.…”

The Evolution and Design of Powers at the UN Commission on Human Rights: The Complex Legacy of Anti-Apartheid Activism

“…This solidarity served both an ideological function, in that it sought to project a set of shared values, and an instrumental function, providing newly independent states with a system of support in international organizations. 85 Collective solidarity included what can be described as "inter-bloc shielding" -the use of formal mechanisms or rhetorical appeals to deflect or steer institutional procedures for protection of human rights away from fellow states in the same bloc. Rupert Emerson, writing in 1975, observed that systematic human rights abuses, such as the massacres in Rwanda in 1965 and forced deportations from Ghana, were overlooked, ignored and in some cases even defended by the Third World bloc at the Commission.…”

The Discourse on Language in International Relations

“…Over the years the concept has become popular to the extent of assuming a new plethora of synonyms such as "'underdeveloped world', 'developing countries', 'less developed countries,' 'former colonies,' 'Afro-Asian and Latin American countries,' 'the South' (of the North-South division) and so on" (Muni, 1979). It is interesting to note that in 1955, at the Bandung Conferences, the term 'Third World' was understood in a different context by the Afro-Asian bloc as not just carrying negative associations such as "political powerlessness, economic poverty and social marginalization" (Thomas, 1999, p. 225) but rather a 'Third Force,' a kind of counter-defensive force consisting of Non-Aligned Movement member states, formally under colonial domination, against the East-West Cold War dichotomy.…”