Global South
The nations left out of the postwar order โ not a geography, a structural condition with a plan. (see also BRICS)
How We Say It
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Where It Comes From
Replaced 'Third World' after the Cold War ended and the binary it implied โ First World (West), Second World (Soviet bloc), Third World (everyone else) โ dissolved. 'Global South' emerged in development discourse in the 1990s and became widely used by the 2000s.
How It's Been Used
Covers Africa, Latin America, South and Southeast Asia, and parts of the Middle East โ the nations that share a history of colonization, economic extraction, and exclusion from the institutions that set global rules. The term is geographic but the category is political. Some nations in the geographic south (Australia, New Zealand) are not Global South in the political sense. China's position โ largest economy in the group, also a major power โ creates ongoing definitional tension.