Third-worldism is a political concept and ideology that emerged in the late 1940s or early 1950s during the Cold War and tried to generate unity among the nations that did not want to take sides between the United States and the Soviet Union. The concept is closely related but not identical to the political theory of Maoism–Third Worldism.
The political thinkers and leaders of third-worldism argued that the north–south divisions and conflicts were of primary political importance compared to the East-West opposition of the Cold War period. In the three-world model, the countries of the First World were the ones allied to the United States. These nations had less political risk, better functioning democracy and economic stability, and continue to have a higher standard of living. The Second World designation referred to the former industrial socialist states under the influence of the Soviet Union. The Third World hence defined countries that remained non-aligned with either NATO, or the Communist Bloc. 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, connected to the world economic division as "periphery" countries in the world system that is dominated by the "core" countries. [1]
Third-worldism was connected to new political movements following the decolonization and new forms of regionalism that emerged in the erstwhile colonies of Asia, Africa, and the Middle-East as well as in the older nation-states of Latin America, including pan-Arabism, pan-Africanism, pan-Americanism and pan-Asianism. [2]
The first period of the third-worldist movement, that of the "first Bandung Era", was led by the Egyptian, Indonesian and Indian heads of states such as Nasser, Sukarno and Nehru. They were followed in the 1960s and 1970s by a second generation of third-worldist governments that emphasized on a more radical and revolutionary socialist vision, personified by the figure of Che Guevara. At the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, Third Worldism began to enter into a period of decline. [2]
Third World solidarity is a key tenet of Third Worldism, emphasizing unity and cooperation among countries and peoples of the Global South in the struggle against imperialism, colonialism, and neocolonialism. [3] It embodies the principle of mutual support and shared interests among formerly colonized and oppressed nations, seeking to address common challenges such as poverty, underdevelopment, and marginalization. Third World solidarity encompasses various forms of collaboration, including diplomatic alliances, economic cooperation, cultural exchange, and mutual aid. It emphasizes the agency and autonomy of the Global South in shaping its own destiny and advocating for a more just and equitable international order. [4] [5] [6] [7]
Several leaders have been associated with the third-worldist movement, including: [2] [ failed verification ]
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 
Houari Boumédiène 
Amílcar and Luís Cabral 
Fidel Castro and Che Guevara 
Hugo Chávez 
Muammar Gaddafi 
Ho Chi Minh 
Mao Zedong 
Patrice Lumumba 
Michael Manley 
Evo Morales 
Gamal Abdel Nasser 
Jawaharlal Nehru 
Kwame Nkrumah 
Julius Nyerere 
Sukarno Mohammad Hatta 
Thomas Sankara [8] 
Josip Broz Tito 
Modibo Keïta Theorists include:
Frantz Omar Fanon was a French Afro-Caribbean psychiatrist, political philosopher, and Marxist from the French colony of Martinique. His works have become influential in the fields of post-colonial studies, critical theory, and Marxism. As well as being an intellectual, Fanon was a political radical, Pan-Africanist, and Marxist humanist concerned with the psychopathology of colonization and the human, social, and cultural consequences of decolonization.
The Wretched of the Earth is a 1961 book by the philosopher Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychoanalysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonisation of a person and of a people. The French-language title derives from the opening lyrics of "The Internationale", which is reflected in the English title as well.
The New Communist movement (NCM) was a diverse left-wing political movement during the 1970s and 1980s in the United States. The NCM were a movement of the New Left that represented a diverse grouping of Marxist–Leninists and Maoists inspired by Cuban, Chinese, and Vietnamese revolutions. This movement emphasized opposition to racism and sexism, solidarity with oppressed peoples of the third-world, and the establishment of socialism by popular revolution. The movement, according to historian and NCM activist Max Elbaum, had an estimated 10,000 cadre members at its peak influence.
A political international is a transnational organization of political parties having similar ideology or political orientation. The international works together on points of agreement to co-ordinate activity.
The Cold War (1962–1979) refers to the phase within the Cold War that spanned the period between the aftermath of the Cuban Missile Crisis in late October 1962, through the détente period beginning in 1969, to the end of détente in the late 1970s.
The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference, also known as the Bandung Conference, was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on 18–24 April 1955 in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. The twenty-nine countries that participated represented a total population of 1.5 billion people, 54% of the world's population. The conference was organized by Indonesia, Burma (Myanmar), India, Ceylon, and Pakistan and was coordinated by Ruslan Abdulgani, secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.
For India, the concept of non-alignment began as a policy of non-participation in the military affairs of a bipolar world and in the context of colonialism aimed towards optimum involvement through multi-polar participation towards peace and security. It meant a country should be able to preserve a certain amount of freedom of action internationally. There was no set definition of non-alignment, which meant the term was interpreted differently by different politicians and governments, and varied in different contexts. The overall aims and principles found consensus among the movement members. Non-aligned countries, however, rarely attained the freedom of judgement they desired and their actual behaviour towards the movement's objectives, such as social justice and human rights, were unfulfilled in many cases. India's actions often resembled those of aligned countries. The response of the non-aligned nations during India's wars in 1962, 1965 and 1971 revealed non-aligned positions on issues such as secession. The non-aligned nations were unable to fulfil the role of peacekeepers during the Indo-China war of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965 despite meaningful attempts. The non-aligned response to the Bangladesh Liberation War and the following 1971 Indo-Pakistan War showed most of the non-aligned nations prioritised territorial integrity above human rights, which could be explained by the recently attained statehood for the non-aligned. During this period, India's non-aligned stance was questioned and criticized. Jawaharlal Nehru had not wanted the formalization of non-alignment and none of the non-aligned nations had commitments to help each other. The international rise of countries such as China also decreased incentives for the non-aligned countries to stand in solidarity with India.
Third World socialism is an umbrella term for many movements and governments of the 20th century— all variants of socialism— that have taken place in numerous less-developed countries. There have been many leaders of this practice and political philosophy which remained strong until at least the 1990s, including: Michel Aflaq, Salah al-Din al-Bitar, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Buddhadasa, Fidel Castro, Muammar Gaddafi, Saddam Hussein, Juan Domingo Perón, Modibo Keïta, Walter Lini, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Jawaharlal Nehru, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Sukarno, Ahmed Sékou Touré and other socialist leaders of the Third World who saw socialism as the answer to a strong and developed nation.
Postcolonial international relations is a branch of scholarship that approaches the study of international relations (IR) using the critical lens of postcolonialism. This critique of IR theory suggests that mainstream IR scholarship does not adequately address the impacts of colonialism and imperialism on current day world politics. Despite using the language of post-, scholars of postcolonial IR argue that the legacies of colonialism are ongoing, and that critiquing international relations with this lens allows scholars to contextualize global events. By bridging postcolonialism and international relations, scholars point to the process of globalization as a crucial point in both fields, due to the increases in global interactions and integration. Postcolonial IR focuses on the re-narrativization of global politics to create a balanced transnational understanding of colonial histories, and attempts to tie non-Western sources of thought into political praxis.
Maoism–Third Worldism (MTW) is a broad tendency which is mainly concerned with the infusion and synthesis of Marxism—particularly of the Marxist–Leninist–Maoist persuasion—with concepts of non-Marxist Third Worldism, namely dependency theory and world-systems theory.
Toward the African Revolution is a collection of essays written by Frantz Fanon, which was published in 1964, after Fanon's death. The essays in the book were written from 1952 to 1961, between the publication of his two most famous works, Black Skin, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth. Fanon expands on the themes of colonization, racism, decolonization, African unity, and the Algerian Revolution in the essays, most of which come from his time writing for El Moudjahid, the official newspaper of the FLN.
The 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held October 25–26, 2019 in Baku, Azerbaijan. The summit was attended by the delegation from more than 120 countries.
The Tricontinental Conference was a gathering of countries that focused on anti-colonial and anti-imperial issues during the Cold War era, specifically those related to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The conference was held from 3rd to 16 January 1966, in Havana, Cuba and was attended by roughly 500 delegates from 82 different countries. It founded the Organization of Solidarity with the People of Asia, Africa and Latin America (OSPAAAL). The key issues discussed at the conference were countries that were in midst of revolutions, with a specific focus on Cuba and Vietnam.
Indonesia–Yugoslavia relations were historical foreign relations between now split-up Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Indonesia. Both countries were founding member states of the Non-Aligned Movement. Two countries established formal diplomatic relations in 1954. First diplomatic documents were exchanged as early as 1947. Breakup of Yugoslavia, one of the founding and core members of the Non-Aligned Movement, brought into question the very existence of the Movement which was preserved only by politically pragmatic chairmanship of Indonesia.
Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement on 1–6 September 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia was the first conference of the Non-Aligned Movement. A major contributing factor to the organization of the conference was the process of decolonization of a number of African countries in the 1960s. Some therefore called it the ″Third World's Yalta″ in reference to 1945 Yalta Conference.
The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 countries that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. It was founded with the view to advancing interests of developing countries in the context of Cold War confrontation. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.
Second Summit Conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement on 5–10 October 1964 in Cairo, United Arab Republic (Egypt) was the second conference of the Non-Aligned Movement which followed the Belgrade Conference of 1961 and preceded the Lusaka Conference of 1970. The city of Cairo was selected as a host of the summit conference at the preparatory meeting held in Colombo, Ceylon, on March 23, 1964. At the beginning of the conference the chairmanship of the Movement was transferred from the President of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito to the President of Egypt Gamal Abdel Nasser.
5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement on 16–19 August 1976 in Colombo, Sri Lanka was the conference of Heads of State or Government of the Non-Aligned Movement. 86 nations participated in the summit with additional 30 observers and guests representing all the continents in the world. The Summit is the biggest international conference ever held in Sri Lanka and one of the greatest achievements in its foreign policy. The event took place at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, the first purpose-built conference hall in Asia. It was the first heads of state or government summit of the movement to be organized in Asia. The decisions on the NAM Coordination Bureau organisation and membership conditions were formally defined at the Colombo Summit. The body was to have 25 members and was expected to meet regularly at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.
Sri Lanka is one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. Principles of Non-Alignment and participation in movement's activities is of high priority in foreign policy of the country.
Campism is a pejorative common in left-wing politics for the belief that the world is divided into large, competing political groups of countries ("camps") and that people should support one camp over the other camps. Unlike nationalists, campists do not support any countries for reasons such as ethnicity or national identity. Instead, campists support their camp for ideological reasons, because they believe their camp promotes their ideology, such as socialism or anti-imperialism.
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