Replacing First and Third Word As Global North/South and Their Relations
Write a 3 pages reflection papere. The topic is – Does replacing the
terms “First world & third world” with “Global North/South” add
any analytical depth to development discourse? Is is it simply a
reproduction
of the past relationship between developed and developing countries,
hidden behind semantics.
Solution
First and Third Word As Global North/South And Their Relations
Replacing the terms “first word and third world” with “global North and South" can be
said to be factual statements, since most of the improved countries in the world are located in the
Northern part of the globe. Such countries include the United States, Canada, the United
Kingdom, Israel, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, and all member states
of the European Union. The above-mentioned states form a stable socio-economic and political
division of the universe. Permanent members of the United Nations Security Council excluding
China also fall under this category. The southern part of the globe consists of Africa, Latin
America, and Middle East Brazil. BRIC countries also form the largest part of the southern part
of the globe. Such countries include India, China, and Indonesia (Kingsbury, 2012).
. The northern part is typically correlated with the western world and the first world and
also most of the second world. On the other side, southern largely tally with the third world and
the eastern world. The two universal groups often differ based on the fact that the Northern side
accumulates more wealth than the southern side. The southern part is characterized by low
standards of living because of the low income, fragile democracy, political instability and low
economic freedom (Prashad, 2008).
. They majorly depend on primary sector exports and constantly share colonialism by the
Northern nations. The northern world is considered to be wealthy as they tend to export more
technologically improved products for they have got high production capacity. Moreover, based
on the economic terms, of the early 21 st century, nations with one-quarter of the world
population, control four-fifths of the income earned internationally. The northern side owns
more than 90% of the manufacturing industries. Inversely, Southern states have three-quarters
FIRST AND THIRD WORD AS GLOBAL NORTH/SOUTH AND THEIR RELATIONS
3
population and have access to one-fifth of the global income, since they have just 10% of the
manufacturing companies (Kingsbury, 2012).
The past relationship of these states forms a basic description of the term Northern and
southern nations a situation popularized in the 20the century. To be where they are today is due
to how there interrelated with each other for the sake of their economic development.
Additionally, most of the international institutions inaugurated to foresee economic development,
for instance, international monetary funds; European Union and United Nations were originally
based in the Northern part and the commencement of their operations typically begun in their
headquarters, not in the southern part of the world. By doing so, they characterized their
economic status which is a result of the past relationship.
The world split into two geopolitical federations after world war two to separate the
sphere of communism and capitalism a situation that led to the cold war. During which the
northern sphere was only featured by political, social and economic significance. The concept of
the first world originated during this period and was comprised of countries that were generally
aligned with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) (Weinberg, 2014). The term first
world shifted from this nature to mean nations with a well-functioning democracy, rule of law,
capitalist economy, economic stability and high standards of living. Henceforth, these countries
have been characterized by high GDP and GNP, elevated literacy level, life dependency, and the
human development index.
In the year 1949, NATO-allied the northern countries to come up with
intergovernmental military alliances between North America and European countries. NATO
headquarters are based in Eyere, Brussels in Belgium where the alliance activated the Northern
Atlantic Treaty or Washington treaty which was to stimulate collective defense where its
FIRST AND THIRD WORD AS GLOBAL NORTH/SOUTH AND THEIR RELATIONS
4
dependent member states agree to mutual defense to prevent any potential attack by the third
parties. Afterward, doubts over the strength of European and the United States relationship
abated which also lowered NATO credibility against a prospective Soviet invasion. Henceforth,
an independent French nuclear deterrent was developed and in 1982, newly democratic Spain
joined the alliance.
Alternatively, the past relations between the southern hemispheres characterized the
description of the third world countries. During the cold war, the term third world countries
referred to the developing countries which could not align themselves with the first world
countries neither the second world countries. Most of the third world nations were once
colonized by first world countries. After gaining independence, most of these countries
especially small and unstable ones faced some challenges of nation and institution building on
their own for the first time. Shortly after gaining independence, the colonized states henceforth
started to stabilize themselves and the Bandung Conference in the year 1955 is a distinguished
example of post-colonial state meetings with 29 nations. Due to the common background, many
of these nations were improving on economic bases (Weinberg, 2014).
In 1980, economist peter Bauer found common characteristics in all third world
countries, their governments demand had to receive western aid but he opposed the idea.
Therefore the aggregate term was challenged as it misleading even during the cold war period
because it had no consistent description of the countries encompassed. Colonization affected the
culture of the third world nations which was referred to as western import (Prashad, 2008).
In conclusion, the terms North and South global are a reproduction of past relations
between the member nations. The terms third world and the first world are outdated since some
of the nation's initially referred so have now economically developed to meet the standards of
FIRST AND THIRD WORD AS GLOBAL NORTH/SOUTH AND THEIR RELATIONS
5
second and even first-world nations. In the future, all the countries could meet the regarded
standards of the first world nations and the globe would be fully industrialized to enhance the
utilization of the natural resource to boost productivity thus ensuring economic stability.
FIRST AND THIRD WORD AS GLOBAL NORTH/SOUTH AND THEIR RELATIONS
6
References
Kingsbury, D., McKay, J., Hunt, J., McGillivray, M., & Clarke, M. (2012). International
development: Issues and challenges. Macmillan International Higher Education.
https://books.google.com/books?id=_5rLDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA41&dq=definition+of+fir
st+world+countries&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja_-qthYfoAhUCAGMBHT-
8DnsQ6AEIRDAD#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20first%20world%20countries&f=
false
Prashad, V. (2008). The darker nations: a people's history of the Third World. The New Press.
https://books.google.co.m/books?id=YM-
xsaL6qLYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=third+and+first+world+definition&hl=en&sa=X
&ved=0
ahUKEwirpufrg4foAhU7C2MBHdPMDt4Q6AEIKjAA#v=onepage&q=third%20and%2
0first% 20world%20definition&f=false
Weinberg, G. L. (2014). The Inter-war years; The Second World War begins; War in the West
1940; Barbarossa: the German invasion of the Soviet Union; Japan expands its war
with China; The turning tide: fall 1942-spring 1944; Developments on the home front
and in technical and medical fields; Allied victory 1944-45; Further reading; Index: A
Very Short Introduction (Vol. 409). Oxford University Press, USA.
https://books.google.com/books?id=pG7DBAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=worl
d+war&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWnuTxgYfoAhWZD2MBHVdwCOwQ6AEIQT
AD#v=onepage&q=world%20war&f=false
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