The World System: A Life Cycle Discourse

Journal of Futures Studies, May 2007, 11(4): 97 104 How do we conceive of the world system? For a long time, say 1950-2000, there were two clear answers based on real world divisions coinciding with the compass: the West-East, and the North-South discourses; the former based on ideology and military alliances and the latter on economic development. NATO versus WTO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization versus the Warszawa Treaty Organization, and then the NN countries, the Neutral-Nonaligned. And, the More Developed Countries versus the Less Developed Countries, MDCs versus the LDCs, roughly measured by GNP/capita, also referred to as the First and the Third Worlds, the OECD Group and the Group of 77, with the socialist countries as the Second World. Like NATO-WTO the more developed versus less developed division was supervised by Washington DC or WDC. The Washington group had the final word on who belonged where. Thus, to WDC the formula MDC vs LDC, indicative of a conflict--like exploitation coming out of centuries of colonialism--not merely a classification, was an anathema. But NATO vs WTO as a conflict, not only a classification, was mandatory. The West-East goal was to contain WTO in general, the Soviet Union in particular, and communism, if possible with their collapse. And the NorthSouth goal was to prevent the classification from becoming antagonistic, particularly by the South aligning itself with the East, through such measures as development assistance, covert operations and overt military intervention to prevent wealth distribution favoring the South and the poorest in the South (Perkins, 2004). The overriding goal was to maintain the North-South divide, using the divide as a Ricardian division of labor. The divisions could be combined into Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast, the First, Second, Third and then the Fourth world, with China and Japan on a different path.. The First world was more Christian, I-culture, and the Fourth world Buddhist, we-culture.