Non-Aligned Movement

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members.

It was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. An initiative of Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito and Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru led to the first Conference of Heads of State or Government of Non-Aligned Countries. The term non-aligned movement appears first in the fifth conference in 1976, where participating countries are denoted as "members of the movement".

The purpose of the organization has been enumerated as to ensure "the national independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity and security of non-aligned countries" in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression, occupation, domination, interference or hegemony as well as against great power and bloc politics," by Fidel Castro in his Havana Declaration of 1979. The countries of the Non-Aligned Movement represent nearly two-thirds of the United Nations' members and contain 55% of the world population. Membership is particularly concentrated in countries considered to be developing or part of the Third World, though the Non-Aligned Movement also has a number of developed nations.

Although many of the Non-Aligned Movement's members were actually quite closely aligned with one or another of the superpowers, the movement still maintained cohesion throughout the Cold War, even despite several conflicts between members which also threatened the movement. In the years since the Cold War's end, it has focused on developing multilateral ties and connections as well as unity among the developing nations of the world, especially those within the Global South.