World Poverty. Why has this problem persisted through years of unprecedented economic growth throughout most of the world? This paper proposes that the problem is theoretical. The main theories, such as Realism and Modernization rely on fundamental assumptions such as international order through the maintenance of state power, or free market ideology, which serve to exacerbate, rather than solve, the problem of poverty. The result is either the misrepresentation of poverty, or the blatant ignorance of its existence by these dominant theories.