A globális világrend és az Észak–Dél-kontextus
The Global World Order and the North –South Context

Summary/Abstract: The study investigates the opportunities offered by the ever globalising system of international relations, dictated by rich countries of the North, in particular, the US A, to the highly indebted poor countries of the South. It takes a closer look at whether itis possible for the South to get to more advantageous positions in the international arena, making their societies more economically competitive during the course of the 21st century. The analysis also provides an overview of the evolution of the notion “Third World”, giving some examples for its major contexts and general usage. It aims to answer in what sense it can be plausible and acceptable that we witness the “end of the Third World”, as suggested by many scholars, especially, by Hans-Henrik Holm in 1990. Today, when we refer to the economically, technologically less developed parts of the world, it is needed to use the politically correct term: the South. The East–West dichotomy that symbolised the bipolar world has been gradually turning into a rather North– South duality, which, to some extent, was existing already during the Cold War. The word itself is therefore not newly coined; its roots go back to the Bandung Conference of 1955, and the “thirdway politics” introduced by the Non-Aligned Movement.[...] . It is for this reason that the study shows the importance of the Human Development Index and the annual Human Development Reports published by the United National Development Programme. In the second, longer part of the paper, it is attempted to look into the changing global order, possibly as seen from the countries of the South. Examples of Botswana and Uganda will prove that there is a chance for African countries to launch and manage reforms from within their own societies, not pushed by the heavy burdens that in most cases the SAPs of the IMF meant in the last decades of the previous century. It is concluded that the term “Third World” has undergone changes as the categories of the international system during the Cold War have transformed themselves. The reality of the notion, however, has not disappeared, rather, it has been polarised even further as there are tremendous differences among the countries of the South. The so-called South–South interactions and co-operations have continuously become more emphatic, but due to absence of proper mechanisms and frameworks in the past that are now in put in place, it has been difficult to articulate at least the needs of certain sub-groups within the South. It is certain that regional co-operative networks and alliances, such as the East-African Community, the ECOWAS, the SADC, MERCOSUR or ASEAN, will be playing an important role in the development of the poor Southerners. The South has become an integral part of the global system, and problems arising from theSouth have been put high on the international agenda, as those are more of a global nature. …

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