“What does ‘Tiers Monde’ mean?” This is a question we get fairly often. It is a French term that literally translates to “Third World” in English. The French term “Tiers Monde” was originally coined by French historian Alfred Sauvy to refer to countries that were not aligned with western capitalist nations or eastern communist nations during the Cold War. Interestingly, the term was originally coined to refer to a “third force”, as in a third political force in the midst of the conflict that was dominating world politics at the time. In fact, “African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah... called for the establishment of a bloc of uncommitted nations as a non-nuclear Third Force’ which was to serve as a positive instrument for peace and reconciliation between the East-West confrontation of the Cold War period.”
