Question

1. While no longer used by the development community, the classification of countries into first, second, and third world status was used historically.
   1. What was the basis of this classification?
   2. What does this tell us about the role of geopolitics and foreign policy in the development community?

Answer 1

Introduction:-

The classification of countries is an important element while judging where the country stands in comparison to others and to evaluate the investment decisions on the basis of rankings. While the process might not be used today in the previous form, the categorization has changed to developed, developing and underdeveloped economies and today is mostly an understood phenomenon since countries have been recognized to have belonged to a particular section respectively.

The basic reason for this was classification gave countries a category and helped others in making judgements about the same.

Case Specifics

Q) What was the basis of this classification?

The basis of classification of these economies was the social culture and the overall economic activity of the nation. Further this translated into the opportunities available in the country with regards to employment, access to healthcare and nutrition etc.

The classification helped in identification of these countries and set a clear understanding in the mind of anyone visiting them or engaging in trade with the same.

Other factors which helped in classification are indicators such as gross domestic product, gross net income etc.

First World Country mainly included countries such as the United States, United Kingdom etc. which were highly developed and saw great economic growth and capital creation.

Second World were those such as China, India and others which were hitting the development curve and gradually transforming and saw increased economic reforms etc.

Third World Countries are those which are yet to come on the development path and see high inequality of income distribution and the mass population tends to have no access to modern healthcare facilities such as African countries of Somalia and to certain extent Asian counterparts such as Pakistan, Bangladesh etc.

Q What does this tell us about the role of geopolitics and foreign policy in the development community?

The basis of such a classification tells us the need of geopolitics and foreign policy to be different for different countries. First world countries always saw increasing competition from one another to gain access to second world countries which were developing and hence had better opportunities for returns.

Further many economic decisions were taken keeping in mind the nature of the countries with which we were dealing respectively.

Identification allows foreign policies to be directed accordingly. First World countries were in direct competition with one another and often saw tension when it comes to designing economic trade with one another. However these countries tend to have higher negotiation capacity.

On the other hand second and third world countries were dependent on technology coming in from First world countries to allow for easier growth opportunities.

Thus this classification allowed for policies to be set in a same manner for the same category countries respectively.

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