Searching for core area growth

Until recently the world economy was focused on four core areas: in western Europe, North America, the Soviet Union, and Japan. Beyond them was the periphery. The economic growth of the periphery depended on core-periphery trade. Since the existing core areas were too few to absorb the periphery's potential production, much of the periphery was producing below capacity. Currently more core areas are coming into existence in Brazil, South Korea, and India. They promote economic development by enlarging the market for peripheral products, drawing resources from the remaining periphery, and providing competition to existing core areas. Latent potentials for core area growth exist in the Near East and southern Africa, but their realization presumes political settlements. The west European core area has expanded onto the Iberian Peninsula and may expand soon beyond the erstwhile Iron Curtain.