I wrote this piece as a world-building exercise for a work-in-progress—a speculative fiction project in which an outside intelligence studies Earth from afar, categorizing the planet’s political systems during its age of crisis.
What began as a fictional exercise quickly took on a sharper edge. It was supposed to be a background document for myself, a tool to help shape the political backdrop of the story I’m building. But as I wrote, it became impossible to ignore how closely this fictional taxonomy mirrors the present-day world.
We still hear terms like “First World” and “Third World”—phrases rooted in Cold War alliances and economic shorthand—but those categories no longer describe the world we live in. Democratic erosion, climate collapse, plutocracy, expansionism, and systemic violence have reshaped the global order. The old labels simply don’t fit anymore.
This piece is still technically fiction—but I’m sharing it here because it feels increasingly difficult to call it that.
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| Photo by Ylanite Koppens: https://www.pexels.com/photo/beige-analog-compass-697662/ |
The Stratification of Sol-3 Polities: A Behavioral Taxonomy of the Earth Crisis Epoch
By: Arthek Sen-Jural, Department of Interstellar Societal Systems, Zhen’Kharian Institute for Advanced Civilization Studies
Thesis Project (Cycle 90421-Beta)
Abstract
In this study, I present an external taxonomy of the dominant polities of Sol-3 ("Earth") at the onset of its planetary destabilization epoch, referred to locally as the "climate crisis" or "late-stage capitalism." Conventional terrestrial classification systems—such as the antiquated First/Second/Third World triad—are no longer relevant to the planet’s current geopolitical landscape. These categories, relics of mid-20th-century conflict alignments, obscure more than they reveal, particularly in an era marked by the dissolution of alliances, democratic decay, and planetary system breakdown.
Herein, I propose a Behavioral Taxonomy of Political Polities on Earth, designed for accurate cross-civilizational analysis. This system categorizes planetary factions based on observable governance behavior, external aggression, resource control, and structural integrity—not economic abstraction or historic allegiance.
Introduction: Failure of Classical Terran Models
Previous Terran frameworks classified states through a myopic lens: alignment with specific Cold War-era power blocs or arbitrary economic markers such as “gross domestic product.” This flattened vast cultural, ecological, and social complexity into mere gradients of wealth or militarization.
Moreover, Terran models typically fail to account for non-linear societal collapse, whereby former “developed” polities devolve into autocratic regimes, or resource-rich polities enact genocidal campaigns under nationalist or theocratic banners.
A new model was necessary—one focused on behavioral outputs and planetary impact.
The New Stratification Model: Behavior-Based Political Taxonomy
Zero World — Collapse Core (Rogue Plutocracies)
Definition: Once-dominant imperial states undergoing democratic implosion, their internal functions hollowed out by plutocratic seizure of governance mechanisms.
Key Traits:
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Democratic erosion via wealth concentration.
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Abandonment of global alliances and cooperative norms.
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Militarized posturing toward both internal dissent and external entities.
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Erratic, expansionist threats masked by nationalist rhetoric.
Primary Example: The United States of America (Terran Designation: “USA”), presently undergoing rapid democratic decay fueled by concentrated capital interests. Behaves as a rogue empire, detached from prior alliance networks.
Fourth World — Neo-Imperium (Genocidal Expansionist States)
Definition: Active settler-colonial, apartheid, or ethnostate regimes engaging in regional expansionism or ethnic cleansing campaigns while cloaked in nationalist, religious, or “security” rhetoric.
Key Traits:
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Systematic ethnic cleansing or genocidal violence.
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Expansionist territorial ambitions, often in defiance of planetary law.
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Theocratic or ethnonationalist state ideologies.
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Weaponization of civilian populations as shields or settlers.
Primary Examples:
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State of Israel: Active territorial annexation and ethnic cleansing campaigns.
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Russian Federation: Neo-imperial invasionist policies under autocratic rule.
First World — Post-Liberal Bloc (Liberal Residual Polities)
Definition: Remnant states maintaining procedural democracies, albeit with rising internal pressures from reactionary movements. Retain outward commitments to international law, multilateralism, and ecological protocols.
Key Traits:
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Mixed economies with nominal electoral systems.
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Gradual liberal erosion, but maintenance of civil institutions.
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Reluctant but persistent participation in planetary treaties.
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Internal tensions between democratic pluralism and rising far-right factions.
Primary Examples:
European Union States, Japan, Canada, New Zealand, Nordics.
Second World — Authoritarian Stability Bloc
Definition: Non-expansionist authoritarian states focused on regional consolidation, resource control, and regime stability through suppression of dissent.
Key Traits:
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Controlled economies under autocratic rule.
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Strategic foreign alignments for resource access.
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Harsh domestic repression but minimal external expansion.
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Reluctant international engagement, often transactional.
Primary Examples:
Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Turkey, Central Asian Republics.
Third World — Peripheral Exploitation Zone
Definition: Historically colonized or resource-extracted states, often in ecological precarity, governed by unstable or externally influenced regimes.
Key Traits:
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Environmental and economic vulnerability.
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Frequent foreign interventions and regime instability.
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Structural debts to wealthier blocs.
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Emerging sites of climate migration, displacement, and famine.
Primary Examples:
Sub-Saharan Africa, portions of Southeast Asia, Latin America.
Fifth World — Liberation Zones & Non-Aligned Futurists
Definition: Small-scale polities, Indigenous-led networks, or experimental governance zones developing post-nationalist, decentralized models of ecological stewardship and self-determination.
Key Traits:
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Autonomous zones with ecological or cooperative economic models.
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Prioritize de-growth, land back movements, and collective sovereignty.
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Minimal military engagement; often ignored by major blocs.
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High ideological significance despite limited material power.
Primary Examples:
Zapatista Territories, Sámi Parliaments, Caribbean Eco-Microstates, isolated autonomous communes.
Implications and Prognosis
This taxonomy suggests Earth’s crisis epoch is defined not by wealth, but by behavioral divergence—between those pursuing aggressive domination, those collapsing inward, and those forging survivalist alternatives.
Of particular concern is the emergence of Zero World and Fourth World polities as planetary destabilizers. Their actions accelerate ecosystem collapse and increase the likelihood of inter-bloc conflict, while simultaneously suppressing nascent Fifth World networks attempting to chart survivable futures.
The possibility of planetary self-termination is nontrivial. However, the existence of Fifth World movements provides a narrow vector for resilience, albeit largely ignored by dominant factions.
Closing Notes
The systems of Sol-3 remain volatile, with multiple potential end-trajectories. For future scholars, this taxonomy may assist in tracking the rapid realignments characteristic of this epoch.
Though bleak, it is not without precedent in interstellar anthropology. Whether Sol-3 emerges as a reconstructed ecological civilization or extinguishes itself under the weight of its Zero and Fourth World blocs remains to be observed.
Filed for review under Planetary Systems, Catastrophe Studies Division.
Arthek Sen-Jural, Thesis Cycle 90421-Beta.
My Closing Notes:
The world I’m building in fiction isn’t a mirror of ours—but the fractures I explore in this taxonomy aren’t theoretical either. As I continue to write, I find myself asking: What happens when the fictional labels we invent to understand other worlds apply just as easily to our own?
If you have thoughts on this piece—or where you see your own country within it—I’d welcome respectful discussion in the comments.
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