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The Non-Aligned Movement Searches for Direction
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10358 |
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Section : |
Current Issues
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| Issue
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12 / 1986 |
2,264 Words |
| Author
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Sanjiv Prakash
Sanjiv Prakash is a print and television journalist based in
the Washington, D.C. area. |
One hundred and one nations from Europe, Asia, Africa, and Latin America gathered at the Zimbabwean capital of Harare for the Eighth Non-Aligned Summit meeting. After deliberating for four days (September 2-6), all parties at the conference clearly understood that the movement for non-alignment with the world's two major military blocs was not only toothless in its ability to enforce any of its decisions but also more divided than at any other period in its 25-year history.
The concept of non-alignment was developed nearly 40 years ago by a small number of nations that wished to remain "not aligned" with the two great power blocs that were emerging at that time--the United States and the Soviet Union. In those early days the term embraced nations that objected to any kind of political or economic association for war purposes--military blocs, military alliances, and the like. Today, while seeking security through peace and not peace through security, the non-aligned nations see their power, with all its diffuse diversity, as a moral force--a force that draws its strength from public opinion through consensus--rather than as a military or economic force.
At the Harare summit it was the total failure of the non-aligned nations' often fragile unity that led many experts and observers to comment that the movement had ceased to be even a moral force that could exert pressure upon the two superpowers. As each day of the summit proceeded, it was clear by the tone of the long-winded speeches that the movement had become significantly divided. Even the exhortations of the movement's top leaders, including Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Rajiv Gandhi of India, Spyros Kyprianou of Cyprus, and Mahathir Bin Mohammed of Malaysia, generated little
... (1996 of 14035 Characters)
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