Book contents
- The Historicity of International Politics
- The Historicity of International Politics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Imperial Past and Present in International Politics and IR
- Part II Historical Sociology and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics
- Part III Global History and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics
- 11 Unearthing the Coloniality in the International through the Genealogy of IR in Japan and Beyond
- 12 Was the Rise of the ‘Third World’ a Theory Effect?
- 13 The Past and Its Presence in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Memory Cultures
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
12 - Was the Rise of the ‘Third World’ a Theory Effect?
International Relations and the Historicity of Economic Expertise
from Part III - Global History and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 June 2023
Book contents
- The Historicity of International Politics
- The Historicity of International Politics
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Part I The Imperial Past and Present in International Politics and IR
- Part II Historical Sociology and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics
- Part III Global History and the Imperial Fundaments of International Politics
- 11 Unearthing the Coloniality in the International through the Genealogy of IR in Japan and Beyond
- 12 Was the Rise of the ‘Third World’ a Theory Effect?
- 13 The Past and Its Presence in Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Memory Cultures
- Conclusion
- Index
- References
Summary
The notion of a ‘Third World’ rose to prominence in international political discourse around 1960 and vanished around 1990. I argue in this article that the term needs to be situated in a larger history of the perception of global difference. I take the ‘Third World’ to be an effect of theory. That is not to play down the material weight of inequality between rich and poor parts of humanity. The point is rather to highlight the importance of discourse in historical change. To what extent were colonial and imperial formations functional for the emergence of the said notion? The peculiar career of the concept is connected to the history of economic thought. The paper thus focuses on the emergence of the term around 1960 and investigates the irrelevance of economics in late colonialism as opposed to the prominence of economic experts in the post-1945 world order.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Historicity of International PoliticsImperialism and the Presence of the Past, pp. 247 - 266Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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