The Third World in the System of States: Acute Schizophrenia or Growing Pains?

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article attempts to locate and understand the place of Third World states in the international system both in terms of their collective impact on the system as the “intruder” element into the Eurocentric system of states and in terms of their role as individual new sovereign states trying to adjust to an international order that can only be defined as an “anarchical society.” Often the dual pressures generated by these two roles can make conflicting demands on these states' decision-making centers, which themselves are under severe internal strain due to the lack of “unconditional legitimacy” for both Third World state-structures and the regimes that preside over them. It is argued that an expanded definition of the concept of “security” is essential for the construction of any paradigm that would have sufficient power to explain why Third World states behave as they do within the international system. It is also argued that the present difficulties they face in adjusting to the system of sovereign states is analogous to the growing pains of adolescence rather than to the schizophrenia of the demented.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: