from Darker Nations by Vijay Prashad, page 174

i just want the world to be less miserable :sadness-abysmal:

  • Thomas_Dankara [any,comrade/them]
    hexagon
    ·
    edit-2
    2 years ago

    better explanation:

    As the Third World state diverted its foreign exchange toward the im­port of arms, it developed close relations with NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The main arms manufacturers and exporters came from either the Atlantic or the Soviet blocs, and the states of the Third World created special relationships to gain access to these producers. Often military arrangements were worked out to allow for the transfer of technology to the non aligned nations. For repairs and training, advisers from the Atlantic and Soviet blocs made frequent trips to the Third world-even to states that formally pledged their non-alignment. In 1973, the Soviet Union went to the UN General Assembly with a resolution to reduce global military expenditures by 1 0 percent and put that money into a fund for social development in the Third World. With all indications that the At­lantic powers would veto the measure, the General Assembly rewrote the resolution to ask the secretary general to study the matter. The world's governments failed to cooperate effectively, and the measure died where it began. Every attempt to stem the arms trade or cut back on the vast increase in the global military budget was met with disdain or incomprehension. Security and defense had come to be reality, whereas social development became idealistic. The 1962 Sino-Indian war tragically disrupted the dynamic of the Non Aligned Movement, and therefore of the political platform of the Third World . Thereafter, India, which took a leadership role in the group at the United Nations on issues of disarmament and peace, was severely compromised by its own arms buildup. China' s foreign policy wound its way from what it had been during the Bandung Conference to a softening of tensions with the United States and its sudden impossible alliances with US-backed dictatorial regimes, for the sake of economic growth and self defense.