Editing First World (section)

==Relationships with the other worlds==
===Historic===
During the Cold War era, the relationships between the First World, Second World and the Third World were very rigid. The First World and Second World were at constant odds with one another via the tensions between their two cores, the United States and the Soviet Union, respectively. The Cold War, as its name suggests, was a primarily ideological struggle between the First and Second Worlds, or more specifically, the U.S. and the Soviet Union.<ref name=hinds>{{cite book |last1= Hinds |first1= Lynn |title= The Cold War as Rhetoric: The Beginnings, 1945–1950 |year= 1991 |publisher= Praeger Publishers |location= New York |isbn= 0-275-93578-7 |page= 129}}</ref> Multiple doctrines and plans dominated Cold War dynamics including the [[Truman Doctrine]] and [[Marshall Plan]] (from the U.S.) and the [[Molotov Plan]] (from the Soviet Union).<ref name=hinds /><ref>{{cite book |last1= Bonds |first1= John |title= Bipartisan Strategy: Selling the Marshall Plan |year= 2002 |publisher= Praeger |location= Westport |isbn= 0-275-97804-4 |page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1= Powaski |first1= Ronald |title= The Cold War: The United States and the Soviet Union, 1917–1991 |url= https://archive.org/details/coldwarunited00powa |url-access= registration |year= 1998 |publisher= Oxford University Press |location= New York |isbn= 0-19-507851-9 |page= [https://archive.org/details/coldwarunited00powa/page/74 74]}}</ref> The extent of the tension between the two worlds was evident in [[Berlin]] -- which was then split into East and West. To stop citizens in East Berlin from having too much exposure to the capitalist West, the Soviet Union erected the [[Berlin Wall]] within the city.<ref>{{cite book |last1= Ambrose |first1= Stephen |title= Rise to Globalism |year= 1998 |publisher= Longman |location= New York |isbn= 0-14-026831-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/risetoglobalis00ambr/page/179 179] |url= https://archive.org/details/risetoglobalis00ambr/page/179 }}</ref>

The relationship between the First World and the Third World is characterized by the very definition of the Third World. Because countries of the Third World were noncommittal and non-aligned with both the First World and the Second World, they were targets for recruitment. In the quest for expanding their sphere of influence, the United States (core of the First World) tried to establish pro-U.S. regimes in the Third World. In addition, because the Soviet Union  (core of the Second World) also wanted to expand, the Third World often became a site for conflict. [[Image:Domino theory.svg|thumb|275px|right|The [[Domino Theory]]]] Some examples include [[Vietnam]] and [[Korea]]. Success lay with the First World if at the end of the war, the country became capitalistic and democratic, and with the Second World, if the country became communist. While Vietnam as a whole was eventually communized, only the northern half of Korea remained communist.<ref>{{Cite web
 |title       = THE COLD WAR (1945–1990)
 |publisher   = U.S. Department of Energy – Office of History and Heritage Resources
 |year        = 2003
 |url         = http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/cold_war.htm
 |access-date  = 27 May 2017
 |url-status     = dead
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053438/http://www.cfo.doe.gov/me70/manhattan/cold_war.htm
 |archive-date = 4 March 2016
}}</ref> The [[Domino Theory]] largely governed United States policy regarding the Third World and their rivalry with the Second World.<ref name=ambrose>{{cite book |last1= Ambrose |first1= Stephen |title= Rise to Globalism |year= 1998 |publisher= Longman |location= New York |isbn= 0-14-026831-6 |page= [https://archive.org/details/risetoglobalis00ambr/page/215 215] |url= https://archive.org/details/risetoglobalis00ambr/page/215 }}</ref> In light of the Domino Theory, the U.S. saw winning the proxy wars in the Third World as a measure of the "credibility of U.S. commitments all over the world".{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}}

===Present===
The movement of people and information largely characterizes the inter-world relationships in the present day.<ref name=diamond>{{cite book |last1= Diamond |first1= Jared |title= Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed |year= 2005 |publisher= Penguin (Non-Classics) |location= New York |isbn= 0-14-303655-6 |pages= [https://archive.org/details/collapse00jare/page/495 495–496] |url= https://archive.org/details/collapse00jare/page/495 }}</ref> A majority of breakthroughs and innovation originate in Western Europe and the U.S. and later their effects permeate globally. As judged by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, most of the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years were from former First World countries (e.g., the U.S. and countries in Western Europe).<ref>{{Cite web
 | title = A World Transformed: What Are the Top 30 Innovations of the Last 30 Years?
 | publisher = Knowledge@Wharton
 | date = February 18, 2009
 | url = http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2163
|access-date=27 May 2017}}</ref>

The disparity between knowledge in the First World as compared to the Third World is evident in healthcare and medical advancements. Deaths from water-related illnesses have largely been eliminated in "wealthier nations", while they are still a "major concern in the developing world".<ref>{{Citation
 | last = Gleick
 | first = Peter
 | author-link = Peter Gleick
 | title = Dirty Water: Estimated Deaths from Water-Related Disease 2000–2020
 | journal = Pacific Institute Research Report
 | pages = 2
 | date = August 12, 2002
 | url = http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050504214621/http://www.pacinst.org/reports/water_related_deaths/water_related_deaths_report.pdf
 | archive-date = May 4, 2005
 | url-status = live}}</ref> Widely treatable diseases in the developed countries of the First World, [[malaria]] and [[tuberculosis]] needlessly claim many lives in the developing countries of the Third World. Each year 900,000 people die from malaria and combating the disease accounts for 40% of health spending in many African countries.<ref name=who>{{Cite web
 | title = Malaria (Fact Sheet)
 | publisher = World Health Organization
 | date = January 2009
 | url =https://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs094/en/
|access-date=27 May 2017}}</ref>

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ([[ICANN]]) announced that the first Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) would be available in the summer of 2010. These include non-Latin domains such as Chinese, Arabic, and Russian. This is one way that the flow of information between the First and Third Worlds may become more even.<ref>{{cite web |title=International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers |date=4 October 2009 |url=http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-04oct09-en.htm|access-date=27 May 2017}}</ref>

The movement of information and technology from the First World to various Third World countries has created a general "aspir(ation) to First World living standards".<ref name=diamond/> The Third World has lower living standards as compared to the First World.<ref name="leonard1542-3"/> Information about the comparatively higher living standards of the First World comes through television, commercial advertisements and foreign visitors to their countries.<ref name=diamond/> This exposure causes two changes: a) living standards in some Third World countries rise and b) this exposure creates hopes and many from Third World countries emigrate—both legally and illegally—to these First World countries in hopes of attaining that living standard and prosperity.<ref name=diamond/> In fact, this emigration is the "main contributor to the increasing populations of U.S. and Europe".<ref name=diamond/> While these emigrations have greatly contributed to globalization, they have also precipitated trends like [[brain drain]] and problems with [[repatriation]]. They have also created immigration and governmental burden problems for the countries (i.e., First World) that people emigrate to.<ref name=diamond/>

===Environmental footprint===
Some have argued that the most important human population problem for the world is not the high rate of population increase in certain Third World countries per se, but rather the "increase in total human impact".<ref name=diamond/> The per-capita footprint—the resources consumed and the waste created by each person—varies globally.  The highest per-person impact occurs in the First World and the lowest in the Third World: each inhabitant of the United States, Western Europe and Japan consumes 32 times as many resources and puts out 32 times as much waste as each person in the Third World.<ref name=diamond/> However, China leads the world in total emissions, but its large population skews its per-capita statistic lower than those of more developed nations.<ref>{{cite web |title= Global warming: Each country's share of CO<sub>2</sub> |publisher=Union of Concerned Scientists|url=http://www.ucsusa.org/global_warming/science_and_impacts/science/each-countrys-share-of-co2.html |access-date=27 May 2017}}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=This source is an advocacy group.|date=February 2023}}

As large consumers of [[fossil fuel]]s, First World countries drew attention to environmental pollution.<ref>{{cite book |title=Renewable Energy Resources and Their Environmental Impact |last=Abbasi |first=Naseema |year=2004 |publisher=PHI Learning Pvt |isbn=81-203-1902-8 |page=vii |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I0Vb8-3Mt38C}}</ref> The [[Kyoto Protocol]] is a treaty that is based on the [[United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change]], which was finalized in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio.<ref name=avery>{{cite book |title=Unstoppable Global Warming: Every 1,500 Years |last1=Singer |first1=Siegfried Fred |last2=Avery |first2=Dennis T. |year=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |page=[https://archive.org/details/unstoppablegloba00sfre/page/59 59] |isbn=9780742551244 |url=https://archive.org/details/unstoppablegloba00sfre|url-access=registration }}</ref> It proposed to place the burden of protecting the climate on the United States and other First World countries.<ref name=avery/> Countries that were considered to be developing, such as China and India, were not required to approve the treaty because they were more concerned that restricting emissions would further restrain their development.

===International relations===
Until the recent past, little attention was paid to the interests of Third World countries.<ref name=darby>{{cite book |title=At the Edge of International Relations: Postcolonialism, Gender, and Dependency |last=Darby |first=Phillip |year=2000 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |isbn=0-8264-4719-8 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IG3PcfCGfQsC&q=international+relations+%22first+world%22+-War&pg=PA33}}</ref> This is because most international relations scholars have come from the industrialized, First World nations.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Hinds |first1=Lynn Boyd |last2=Windt |first2=Theodore |title=The Cold War as Rhetoric: The Beginnings, 1945–1950 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bi9nAAAAMAAJ|year=1991 |publisher=Praeger Publishers |location=New York |isbn=0-275-93578-7 |page=129}}</ref> As more countries have continued to become more developed, the interests of the world have slowly started to shift.<ref name=darby/> However, First World nations still have many more universities, professors, journals, and conferences, which has made it very difficult for Third World countries to gain legitimacy and respect with their new ideas and methods of looking at the world.<ref name=darby/>

===Development theory===
During the Cold War, the [[modernization theory]] and [[development theory]] developed in Europe as a result of their economic, political, social, and cultural response to the management of former colonial territories.<ref name=weber>{{cite book |title=International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction |last=Weber |first=Cynthia |year=2005 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=0-415-34208-2 |pages=153–154|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4P-RPDXaKzMC&q=international+relations+%22first+world%22+-War&pg=RA1-PA54}}</ref> European scholars and practitioners of international politics hoped to theorize ideas and then create policies based on those ideas that would cause newly independent colonies to change into politically developed sovereign nation-states.<ref name=weber/> However, most of the theorists were from the United States, and they were not interested in Third World countries achieving development by any model.<ref name=weber/> They wanted those countries to develop through liberal processes of politics, economics, and socialization; that is to say, they wanted them to follow the liberal capitalist example of a so-called "First World state".<ref name=weber/> Therefore, the modernization and development tradition consciously originated as a (mostly U.S.) alternative to the Marxist and neo-Marxist strategies promoted by the "[[Second World]] states" like the Soviet Union.<ref name=weber/> It was used to explain how developing Third World states would naturally ''evolve'' into developed First World States, and it was partially grounded in liberal economic theory and a form of Talcott Parsons' sociological theory.<ref name=weber/>