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The Non-Aligned Movement of over 115 nations was once a historically unique and periodically powerful vehicle in which the weakest and poorest could stand up to the superpowers, then the US and USSR, and their ideological clubs. Their two-day summit in Egypt wrapping up makes clear not only that the non-aligned need to realign themselves vis-à-vis each other and the post-Cold War world. Above all, the summit’s important if limited outcomes showed why they should and how the world would benefit.
The Non-Aligned Movement was a pragmatic proponent of peace and prosperity worldwide when the world was at the brink of nuclear annihilation and economic turmoil. Bringing together countries of all political creeds, it became a United Nations power bloc which paved the way towards decolonization and development in what, correspondingly, became known as the Third World. In that tradition, within its forum, two nuclear powers with serious grievances against each other (Pakistan and India) pledged to cooperate against terrorists. The group’s reaching out to China again points to another ongoing global realignment.
Raul Castro's vague proclamations on Cuba's support for a new economic order harkens back to when the World Bank and IMF were formed in response to demands by the Non-Aligned Movement for a more equitable global economic system, which have since failed it. The stalled Doha economic talks are a strong echo of the Non-Aligned position. The G8 was a response to a now defunct economic arm of the Non-Aligned, the G88, and OPEC was an offshoot. The world would lose a piece of itself if the Non-Aligned Movement were to come to a halt: an alternative world system based on the principles of diversity and unity (note: One World, Many Peaces).
With renewed citizen involvement, with skilled and pragmatic leadership along the lines of its founders (Nehru, Tito, and Sadat); with support from other associations of nations such as the Organization of American States, the European Union and the African Union; with a total internal reorganization and specific strategies tied to tangible goals, and of course with a new name, the Non-Aligned Movement could become one of the world’s premier and powerful vehicles of peace and prosperity once again. For the Non-Aligned Movement to remain a current event, it must realign itself in the present for the future.
