The decolonization process of the 1960s enabled developing countries (the South) to recognize a common interest contrasted with that of the industrialized countries (the North). In the 1990s this North-South gap has changed profoundly in nature. The relative homogeneity of the South has been transformed into five "South": the newly industrialized countries of Southeast Asia; the oil rich South; the newly impoverished former socialist countries; the countries trying to adjust their economic and development policies in order to accelerate their integration into the North; and the very poor countries, notably in Africa. These changes have increased the social and economic inequalities in all countries and regions of the world. Significantly there has been the emergence of old and new forms of poverty within the North and the development of new wealth within impoverished countries of the South.
2. After the end of the ideological crusading of the cold war, human rights, trade concessions and development aid are becoming the pivot of North-South conflict.