US FOREIGN RELATIONS SINCE 1900: A GLOBAL HISTORY - Admission/Application Essay Example

The concept of “Third World” was applied as an expression similar to that of the “Third Force,” which described and referred to the Non-aligned Asian and African nations’ groups psychologically unified in common resistance to colonialism and imperialism. The Nonaligned Asian and African nations’ groups inevitably occupied a political gap amid the capitalists (First World) and the socialists (Second World). Through this non-alignment, the group of nations tried to maintain their independence and distance themselves from the two rival superpowers, purposely to benefit from the rivalry.

In addition, the “Third World” materialized as an element of the three world’s categorization scheme that, while it maintained currency, appeared to be compelling since it served a double fraction, known as “the globe’s hegemonic conceptualization, and of fight against that domination” (Ninkovich 23). Moreover, immediately after the formulation of the phrase “Third World”, the word was actively approved by radical liberation advocates from Euro-American hegemony and colonialism who supposed it as both an amassing notion to achieve the decolonization missions, and as a mechanism through which to adjust global relationships.

An evident fact is that most of the violent and dangerous Cold War moments were often in the “Third World” region. Both USA and USSR were ready to apply force where they would do without undesirable war risk with their rival superpower. At that time, Europe was amazingly stable; therefore, crises only arose in regions where no equally shared agreement on the region’s status in the superpower confrontation context existed. “Third World” nations like Cuba in the early 1960s, Afghanistan in 1979, Vietnam in the 1960s and Korea in 1950 are major instances (Ninkovich 31).

In three of these situations, USA and USSR fought hot battles by proxy. Both USA and USSR considered