Conclusion

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this concluding chapter is to gather together some of the threads of the thematic and regional chapters and to identify some common ground as well as some obvious differences of opinion that have emerged. An attempt is made to rethink the place of the Third World in the international system, both from the inside out and the outside in: in other words, how have Third World countries come to perceive themselves and how are they perceived by the rest of the world? Different sections of the chapter address: Democratization: the political level; Liberalization: the economic level; Democratization and liberalization: implications for the security level; and Third World images. A final section looks at how mainstream theories of international relations and of development have fared in helping to explain and understand the progress of Third World countries ’beyond the cold war’.