Week 3: Making the Third World: Truman’s Point Four, Third Worldism, and the New International Economic Order
DVST 6901: The global politics of development (Semester 2,
2026)
August 17, 2026
20th century development is a creature of the Cold War and the post-WWII “new world order.” Hence, development as goal and ideal has always been contested. We live in the aftermath of competing alternative concepts of development and competing ideological values and critiques.
Main reading: Getachew (2019), chaps. 3, 5; “Text of the Final Communiqué of Asian-African Conference” (1955); United Nations General Assembly (1974)
Other reading: Rist (2014), chap. 4-6; Illich ([1970] 1973)
Notes
Notes to be added later.
Keywords
Third Worldism and the Non-Aligned Movement, The Allied powers, the United Nations, and the Cold War politics of development
Learning outcomes
- Be able to take a stand on past approaches to change and to identify important ideological contrasts in these approaches
References
Getachew, Adom. 2019. Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of
Self-Determination. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.
Illich, Ivan D. (1970) 1973. “Planned Poverty: The End Result of
Technical Assistance.” In Celebration of Awareness: A Call
for Institutional Revolution, 129–43. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin
Education.
Rist, Gilbert. 2014. The History of Development: From Western
Origins to Global Faith. Translated by Patrick Camiller. 4th ed.
London: Bloomsbury Academic & Professional. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/usyd/detail.action?docID=5915284.
United Nations General Assembly. 1974. “Declaration on the
Establishment of a New International Economic Order.” Resolutions
of the 6th special session, Resolution no. 3201. https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/218450.