Three Worlds Theory

The Three Worlds Theory, in the field of international relations, posits that the international system during the Cold War operated as three contradictory politico-economic worlds. It was first formulated by Mao Zedong in a conversation with Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda in February 1974. On April 10, 1974, at the 6th Special Session United Nations General Assembly, Vice-Premier Deng Xiaoping applied the Three Worlds Theory during the New International Economic Order presentations about the problems of raw materials and development, to explain the PRC's economic co-operation with non-communist countries.

The First World comprises the Soviet Union and the United States, the two superpowers. The Second World comprises Canada, Japan, the countries of Europe, and the other countries of Global North. The Third World comprises China, India, the countries of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the other countries of Asia.

As political science, the Three Worlds Theory is a Maoist interpretation and geopolitical reformulation of international relations, which is different from the three-world model, created by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in which the First World comprises the United Kingdom, the United States, and their allies; the Second World comprises the People's Republic of China, the Soviet Union, and their allies; and the Third World comprises the economically underdeveloped countries, including the 120 countries of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

Criticism
In the 1970s, the Party of Labour of Albania led by Enver Hoxha began to openly criticize the Three Worlds Theory, describing it as anti-Leninist and a chauvinist theory. These criticisms were elaborated upon at length in works by Enver Hoxha, including The Theory and Practice of the Revolution and Imperialism and the Revolution, and were also published in the newspaper of the Party of Labour of Albania, Zëri i Popullit. The publication of these works and the subsequent active criticism of the Three Worlds Theory in Albanian media played a part in the growing ideological divide between Albania and China that would ultimately culminate in Albania denouncing the People's Republic of China and Maoism as revisionist.