Non-Aligned Movement

The movement's immediate antecedent was the Asian-African Conference held in Bandung, Indonesia, from April 18 to 24, 1955. Delegations from 29 governments met as many Asian and African societies were emerging from colonial rule. The conference discussed peace, economic development and decolonization amid Cold War tensions. Its principles included respect for sovereignty, racial and national equality, non-interference, peaceful settlement of disputes and cooperation. Bandung offered newly independent and developing states a way to articulate shared concerns without being defined solely by the rival great-power camps.

The Non-Aligned Movement was formally established at its first summit in Belgrade, then in Yugoslavia, on September 1–6, 1961. The official movement history records 25 participating countries. The summit's prominent leaders included Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito, India's Jawaharlal Nehru, Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah and Indonesia's Sukarno. Their governments differed in their circumstances and aims; the common project was to coordinate diplomacy around independence, sovereignty and reducing great-power pressure, not to create a single government or a mutual-defence pact.

Non-alignment was not meant to require silence or neutrality on every international question. The movement's stated principles included political independence, self-determination, opposition to colonialism and apartheid, peaceful coexistence, disarmament and a stronger role for developing countries in international institutions. NAM is a movement rather than a treaty-based military alliance. It has no formal founding charter or permanent secretariat; its chairing country coordinates its work, while summits and consensus-building provide a venue for common positions. Members' different political systems and national interests have sometimes made agreement or coordinated action difficult.

In addition to political independence, the movement increasingly addressed economic and social questions. In the 1970s it backed calls for a more equitable international economic order, while later agendas continued to include development, nuclear disarmament, multilateral cooperation and reform of international institutions. These priorities did not translate into a uniform foreign policy: members sometimes disagreed, and the movement's influence depended on their ability to find common ground. The Belgrade conference's record likewise reflects competing aims among its participants as well as the limits of their capacity to alter Cold War power relations.

1955 — The Bandung Asian-African Conference articulated principles that became a major antecedent of non-alignment. 1961 — The first NAM summit took place in Belgrade. 1973 — At its Algiers conference, the movement advanced the idea of a new international economic order. 2006 — At the Havana summit, member governments reaffirmed the movement's role as a forum for political coordination after the Cold War.