CHANGING GLOBAL ORDER: POLITICO STRA-TEGIC IMPLICATIONS FOR THE THIRD WORLD

This article explores the significant politico-strategic implications of the changing global order for the Third World. With the collapse of the bipolar Cold War system, developing countries faced a fundamentally new international environment. The study analyzes the loss of strategic leverage that many Third World states had derived from playing the superpowers off against each other. The research investigates the new challenges, including the risk of marginalization in a world dominated by the West, the potential for reduced development aid, and the rise of new conditionalities related to democracy and human rights. The paper also examines the opportunities, such as the potential for greater South-South cooperation and the resolution of long-standing proxy conflicts. The analysis concludes by assessing the strategies that the Third World would need to adopt to navigate this new and uncertain global landscape.

The end of the Cold War was a moment of profound and often paradoxical consequence for the Third World. This paper delves into the politico-strategic implications of this new era for developing countries. The analysis begins by arguing that the bipolar system, for all its dangers, had provided many Third World states with a degree of agency and strategic room for maneuver through the policy of non-alignment. The collapse of this system, the paper contends, led to a "unipolar moment" that significantly reduced this leverage. The core of the study is an examination of the new set of challenges and opportunities. The challenges included the risk that the major powers, no longer competing for allies, would lose interest in the developing world, leading to a decline in foreign aid and diplomatic attention. There was also the rise of a new interventionist norm, where Western powers felt more empowered to intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign states in the name of human rights or democracy. On the opportunity side, the paper explores how the end of superpower-fueled proxy wars could create new possibilities for peace in regions like Southern Africa and Central America. It also discusses the potential for a revitalized South-South cooperation agenda, as developing countries recognized the need for greater collective self-reliance. The findings suggest that the post-Cold War world presented the Third World with a more complex and challenging environment, demanding new and more sophisticated diplomatic strategies for survival and development.