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YOUTH PARTICIPATION IN GLOBAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES
Global Politics: The Cold War
Subsequent to the Second World War, the "North" was dominated by the United States. Europe suffering from the destruction of war, struggled to get back on its feet and in no way posed a threat to US global designs. On the other hand, the Soviet Union stood ideologically opposite to the US and had no necessity to appease them, thus they were the ones who were in way of US domination.
For the Third World, the Cold War represented the imperialist ambitions for both the US and the Soviet Union. Not wanting to attach themselves to either bloc, a host of Third World nations formed the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) which was launched in Bandung in 1955. The principle objectives were to accelerate decolonization, respect for self-determination and the prevention of the use of force to settle international conflicts.
By the seventies, with only a few colonies left on the map, NAM began to concentrate more on economic issues, especially the growing gap between the First World and the Third World. In Algeria in 1973, they called for a New International Economic Order and formed associations of producers of raw materials, which they hoped would give them a stronger hand in dealing with the First World.
However in the 1980's the Third World lost much of what it had gained in the preceding 30 years. Foreign debt caused massive socio-economic deterioration in Latin America and later in Africa, where country after country was forced to adopt International Monetary Fund (IMF) administered Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). The SAPs called for a cut in social services and a restructuring of the economy in favour of increased exports. This caused severe internal problems which led to political, economic and social chaos. Today we refer to the eighties as the "Lost decade of development".
SAPs called for privatization and economic liberalization, opening the doors up even wider for Transnational Companies (TNCs) to enter national economies. Now they monopolize large sectors of the global economy and have a strong political influence on most governments.
Cite as: Youth Sourcebook on Sustainable Development. Winnipeg: IISD, 1995. Online. Internet. http://iisd.ca/youth/ysbk082.htm.