ABSTRACT
Attaining high development status is to a country what conquering the Crown of the Himalayas and Karakoram (i.e. the Himalayan and Karakoram eight-thousanders) is to an individual. In this chapter, we go in search of the “developmental eight-thousanders” that form the “Crown of High Development” with the aid of 15 4-class composite choropleth maps showing the relations between selected social, economic, and political indicators. Twenty-six indicators were used to draw the maps in this chapter. It is assumed, however, that only the summary map can illustrate the division of the international community on the basis of development level but more than one summary map can be drawn. The summary maps admittedly vary in detail, simultaneously allocating some countries to several categories, but – and this is a most important observation – on a general level, they are surprisingly convergent. The international community can be divided into a global North and a global South, but this cannot be done with a single continuous line. The picture is one of an archipelago of highly developed islands dispersed in an undeveloped ocean.
