Non-Aligned Movement

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Image:Map Non-Aligned Movement.png The Non-Aligned Movement, or NAM, is an international organization of over 100 states which consider themselves not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. The purpose of the organization as stated in the Havana Declaration of 1979 is to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries in their struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, apartheid, racism, including Zionism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics". NAM focuses on national struggles for independence, the eradication of poverty, economic development and opposing colonialism, imperialism, and neo-colonialism. They represent 55% of the planet's people, most of the world's authoritarian governments and nearly two-thirds of the UN's members.

Important members include India, Egypt, South Africa and, for a time, the People's Republic of China. Brazil has never been a formal member of the movement, but the country shares many of the aims of NAM and frequently sends observers to NAM summits. While the organization was intended to be as close an alliance as NATO or the Warsaw Pact, it has little cohesion and many of its members were aligned with one or another of the great powers. For example, Cuba was closely aligned with the former Soviet Union during the Cold War era. India was effectively aligned with the Soviet Union against China for many years. The movement fractured from its own internal contradictions when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979. While the client states of the Soviet Union fully supported the invasion, other members of the movement found it impossible to do so.

The Non-Aligned Movement has struggled to find relevance since the end of the Cold War. The successor states of Yugoslavia, a founding member, have expressed little interest in the NAM since the country's break-up, and in 2004, Slovenia, along with Malta and Cyprus, ceased to be a member of the NAM when it joined the European Union. Malta and Cyprus now have the status of observer.

1 The Origin of the Non-Aligned Movement
2 Member Countries
3 NAM Summit meetings
- 3.1 NAM Summit Locations and Dates
4 See also
5 External links

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The Origin of the Non-Aligned Movement

The term "Non-Alignment" itself was coined by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru during his speech in 1954 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. In this speech, Nehru described the five pillars to be used as a guide for Sino-Indian relations, which were first put forth by the contemporary Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. Called Panchsheel, these principles would later serve as the basis of the Non-Aligned Movement. The five principles were:

Mutual respect for each other's territorial integrity and sovereignty
Mutual non-aggression
Mutual non-interference in domestic affairs
Equality and mutual benefit
Peaceful co-existence

The origin of the Non-aligned movement can be traced to a conference hosted in Bandung, Indonesia in 1955. The world's "non-aligned" nations declared their desire not to become involved in the East-West ideological confrontation of the Cold War. Bandung marked a significant milestone for the development of NAM as a political movement.

However it was six years later in September of 1961, largely through the initiative of Josip Broz Tito, then-president of Yugoslavia, that the first official Non-Aligned Movement Summit was held. As well as Tito and Nehru, the other prominent world leaders instrumental in getting NAM off the ground were Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt and Sukarno of Indonesia.

The movement lost credibility in the 1970s when it was seen by critics to have become dominated by states friendly to the Soviet Union. While leaders like Tito, Nasser, Sukarno or Nehru could represent an ideology of non-alignment, a leader like Fidel Castro made a mockery out of the whole concept.

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Member Countries

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NAM Summit meetings

Generally NAM summits take place every three years. Countries that have hosted NAM summits include Yugoslavia, Egypt, Zambia, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Cuba, India, Zimbabwe, Indonesia, Colombia, South Africa, and Malaysia.

The first summit was held at Belgrade in 1961. The summit saw representatives from 25 countries – eleven from both Asia and Africa along with Yugoslavia, Cuba, and Cyprus.

The next meeting was held in Cairo in 1964. It was attended by forty-six nations, with most of the new members being newly independent African states. Much of the meeting involved discussions about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Indo-Pakistani conflict.

The 1970 meeting in Lusaka was attended by fifty-four nations and was one of the most important with the movement forming a permanent organization to foster economic and political ties. Zambia's dictator, President Kenneth Kaunda, played a crucial role in these events.

The 1973 meeting in Algiers saw the movement deal with new economic realities. The 1973 world oil shock had made some of its members vastly richer than the others. The end of the attachment of the U.S. currency to gold, and the dollar's subsequent devaluation, also removed one of the group's largest complaints.

The 1979 meeting in Havana saw the movement discussing the merits of a "natural alliance" seen by many between the NAM and the Soviet Union. Under the leadership of Fidel Castro, the Summit discussed the concept of an anti-imperialist alliance with the Soviet Union. Prime Minister Manley of Jamaica gave a well-received pro-soviet speech. Among other things he said, "All anti-imperialists know that the balance of forces in the world shifted irrevocably in 1917 when there was a movement and a man in the October Revolution, and Lenin was the man." Manley also praised Fidel Castro as "humane" and credited him for strengthening the forces committed to the struggle against imperialism in the Western Hemisphere.

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