Non-alignment

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The world now changed the way it did in the 1950s, when the Non-Aligned Countries Movement began to be established. When I was born, the world was clearly structured in the presence of two superpowers (the United States and the Soviet Union), each of which had a large bloc in the West and East. In that world, of which very little remains, the Non-Aligned Movement arose at a massive founding conference attended by 29 countries in Bandung, Indonesia. They were all Asian and African countries, some of which had recently become independent. These countries were searching for their way in a world with clear features, so they chose to stand in the middle and not side with either the Western or Eastern blocs. The number of member states in the movement gradually increased with its successive meetings at the summit level, from Belgrade in 1961 to Kampala in 2024.

The non-aligned countries were not neutral. Some had strong ties with the United States, and others had close ties to the Soviet Union. But they agreed on basic general principles: respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states, equality between nations and races, rejecting aggressions, preventing interference in the internal affairs of other states, and adopting a peaceful coexistence approach.

But the difference between the circumstances and conditions of these countries, and therefore their policies, weakened the effectiveness of the movement during the Cold War, even though its voice was loud in international forums. The movement's weakness appeared in its influence on international relations, as well as in its inability to resolve differences and disputes among its members.

However, it had a role that it was losing with the end of the Cold War and the world entering a new phase characterized by fluidity. For example, there is no longer a third world represented by the movement. No one mentions this world anymore, with the increasing use of the term “Southern countries.” There was an overlap between the concepts of non-alignment and the South, without a clear definition of the features of either of them after all the changes that occurred.

Thus, all that remains of the Non-Aligned Movement is its name and its group, which includes 120 countries in the United Nations General Assembly and summit conferences, the last of which was the Kampala 2024 conference so far.