Recent events in Russia, Ukraine and Crimea suggest to some a return to a
Cold War that gave rise to formerly common
notions, such as the Third World.
The term Third World arose during the Cold War to define countries that
remained non-aligned or neutral with either capitalism and NATO (which along
with its allies represented the First World) or communism and the Soviet Union
(which along with its allies represented the Second World). This definition
provided a way of broadly categorizing the nations of the Earth into three
groups based on social, political, and economic divisions. Although the term
continues to be used to describe the poorest countries in the world, this usage
is widely disparaged since the term no longer holds any verifiable meaning
after the fall of the Soviet Union. While there is no identical contemporary
replacement, common alternatives include developing world and Global South.
From Threes, Chapter 5, "Threes in
Psychology and Sociology”
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