When the Third World matters

The role of third world countries in the grand strategies of great countries has always been uncertain. Having a low GNP, and consequently little real or latent military power, third world nations were considered unimportant from a military point of view. Yet great powers have traditionally been deeply involved in the periphery. Political scientist Michael Desch resolves this paradox, arguing that such areas can be of key importance for a variety of reasons. His discussion of the role third world nations can play in strategic matters is of particular relevance to developments in the post-Cold War world. When the Third World Matters examines U.S. strategy relating to Latin America at four critical points in history: World War I, World War II, the Cuban missile crisis, and the later Cold War. Desch shows how areas that appeared to have no inherent strategic interests nonetheless proved significant, either as a stopping point or entry way to some other, strategically important, area or as a foil to direct a rival power's attention from the main theater of action. The lessons learned from these cases, he argues, are of particular relevance to the making of U.S. post-Cold War strategy elsewhere in the third world - in Africa, the Middle East, or South Asia.