The Non-Aligned Movement

Many newly independent states wanted to avoid choosing sides in the Cold War. Building on the Bandung Conference of 1955, leaders including Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito, India's Nehru, Egypt's Nasser, Indonesia's Sukarno and Ghana's Nkrumah organized the first Non-Aligned summit in Belgrade in September 1961, with 25 member states. The movement opposed colonialism and racism, called for disarmament, and asserted the right of states to pursue independent foreign policies.

Developing countries also organized economically: the Group of 77 formed at the UN in 1964, and in 1974 the UN General Assembly called for a New International Economic Order to improve developing countries' terms of trade. Non-alignment had limits. Members often leaned toward one bloc, accepted aid from both, and sometimes fought each other, as India and China did in 1962. Still, the movement gave newly independent states a collective voice and helped shape the idea of a Global South.