Non-Aligned Movement
|
Member states of the Non-Aligned Movement (2005) |
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,
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 and nearly two-thirds of the
United Nation's members.
Important members have included
India,
Egypt,
Indonesia,
Yugoslavia,
South Africa,
Iran,
Malaysia 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 (particularly the
Muslim states) 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,
Malta and
Cyprus ceased to be members of the NAM when they joined the
European Union. Malta and Cyprus now have the status of observer.
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. The founding fathers of the NAM were five great world leaders:
Tito of
Yugoslavia,
Sukarno of
Indonesia,
Nasser of
Egypt,
Nkrumah of
Ghana, and
Nehru of
India. Their actions were known as
The Intiative of Five.
However it was six years later in September of 1961, through the voluntary 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,
Sukarno of
Indonesia, and
Kwame Nkrumah of
Ghana.
The movement lost credibility beginning in the late
1960s when it was seen by critics to have become dominated by states friendly to the Soviet Union. India began an indigenous nuclear programme effectively abandoning non-alignment immediately after the successful Chinese test of a
22 kiloton nuclear bomb.
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 â€" 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 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
Michael 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.
NAM Summit Locations and Dates
*1st Summit â€"
Belgrade,
1 September 1961 â€"
6 September 1961*2nd Summit â€"
Cairo,
5 October 1964 â€"
10 October 1964*3rd Summit â€"
Lusaka,
8 September 1970 â€"
10 September 1970*4th Summit â€"
Algiers,
5 September 1973 â€"
9 September 1973*5th Summit â€"
Colombo,
16 August 1976 â€"
19 August 1976*6th Summit â€"
Havana,
3 September 1979 â€"
9 September 1979*7th Summit â€"
New Delhi,
7 March 1983 â€"
12 March 1983*8th Summit â€"
Harare,
1 September 1986 â€"
6 September 1986*9th Summit â€"
Belgrade,
4 September 1989 â€"
7 September 1989*10th Summit â€"
Jakarta,
1 September 1992 â€"
7 September 1992*11th Summit â€"
Cartagena de Indias,
18 October 1995 â€"
20 October 1995*12th Summit â€"
Durban,
2 September 1998 â€"
3 September 1998*13th Summit â€"
Kuala Lumpur,
20 February 2003 â€"
25 February 2003*14th Summit â€"
Havana,
14 September 2006 â€"
15 September 2006 [
1][
2]
*
Bandung Conference*
G-77*
Third World*
Non-Aligned Movement Online (Current Secretariat)*
History of NATO â€" the Atlantic Alliance - UK Government site
*
Non-Aligned Movement - Resource site
