The Third World and the Great Powers

Abstract

The Third World has made no attempt to evolve a common and consistent attitude to the momentous changes in world politics that have occurred during this decade. The importance and influence of these countries in international affairs has declined, and they have not participated in the processes which led to the Soviet-American détente or the loosening of the two blocs. In many ways, the changes that have occurred in interbloc and intrabloc relationships are those that the countries of the Third World always regarded as desirable. But the essence of the Third World's problem is that the structural changes in world politics have not been carried forward to the extent that would make them meaningful for poor and weak nations. The inadequacies of the present system are apparent from the steps taken by the two superpowers in the field of disarmament and in their responses to certain types of local conflicts. What is most alarming from the viewpoint of the Third World is that the present system could easily lead to the replacement of the old concept of one world by a new concept of an inner and an outer world relegating the nations of developing areas to the status of a peripheral element in international politics. It is obviously in the interest of the Third World to convert the present search for stability in great-power relations and a minimal world order into a search for global peace and stability and a maximal world order.