In this brief paper, the author shows how the Third World demand for a New International Economic Order (in other words, a more sensible and equitable revision of the existing international division of labour) is consistent, not only within itself, but also with the principle professed by the West itself (viz. that the purpose of division of labour is to make the best use of factor endowments to ensure maximum profitability and common good). In rejecting the demand, the West is repudiating its own conventional wisdom. Aware that implicit in the demand for an international redivision of labour is a demand for international redivision of political power (to which the West, long used to a position of dominance, is not likely to agree willingly), the author suggests a strategy for the Third World to wage its struggle, severally and collectively, on both the political and the economic planes.
