ABSTRACT
The phrase “Third World” was coined as a part of the post-World War II nomenclature to describe the handful of countries who steered a neutral course between the major East and West power blocs. As the cold war cooled down, the term shifted its meaning to an economic designation to refer to underdeveloped portions of the world as measured against the capitalist-developed First World and the socialist-developed Second World. 1 This more inclusive economic definition takes in nearly all of Central and South America, Africa, and Asia, and it spawned a new vocabulary to describe the differences among nondeveloped, underdeveloped, and developing nations.
