BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book s , 2018, pp. 1 - 20. 1 /20 Bandung Conference and its Constellation: An Introdu ction Darwis Khudori 2015 is the year of the 60 th anniversary of the 1955 Bandung Asian - African Conference. Several events were organised in diverse countries along the year 2014 - 2015 in order to commemorate this turning point of world history. In Euro pe, two of the most prestigious universities in the world organised special seminars open to public for this purpose: The University of Paris 1 Pantheon - Sorbonne, Bandung 60 ans après : quel bilan ? (Bandung 60 Years on: What Assessment?), June 27, 2014, a nd Leiden - based academic institutions, Bandung at 60: Towards a Genealogy of the Global Present , June 18, 2015. In Africa, two events echoing the Bandung Conference are worth mentioning: The World Social Forum, Tunisia, March 25 - 28, 2015, and The Conferenc e Africa - Asia: A New Axis of Knowledge, Accra, Ghana, September 24 - 26, 2015. In Latin America, the Journal America Latina en movimiento published an issue titled 60 años después Vigencia del espíritu de Bandung, mayo 2015. In USA, a panel on Bandung +60: L egacies and Contradictions was organised by the International Studies Association in New Orleans, February 18, 2015. In Asia, China Academy of Arts, Inter - Asia School, and Center for Asia - Pacific/Cultural Studies, Chiao Tung University, Hangzhou, organised a conference on BANDUNG – Third World 60 Years, April 18 - 19, 2015. On the same dates, a conference on Vision of Bandung after 60 years: Facing New Challenges was organised by AAPSO (Afro - Asian People’s Solidarity Organisation) in Kathmandu, Nepal. In Indo nesia, three conferences are worth mentioning: BANDUNG CONFERENCE AND BEYOND: Rethinking International Order, Identity, Security, and Justice in a Post - Western World, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, April 8 - 9, 2015; STRENGTHENING SOUTH - SOUTH COOPERATIO N TO PROMOTE WORLD PEACE AND PROSPERITY, Commemoration of the 60 th Anniversary of the Asian - African Conference and the 10 th Anniversary of the New Asian - African Strategic Partnership, organised by the Indonesian government in Jakarta and Bandung on April 1 9 - 24, 2015; RETHINKING EMERGING FORCES 60 YEARS AFTER THE BANDUNG CONFERENCE: Building Sovereignty, Preventing Hegemony, organised by academic institutions from Africa (CODESRIA) and Asia (LIPI Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Padjadjaran University and T risakti University) in collaboration with ANRI (National Archives of the Republic of BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book s , 2018, pp. 1 - 20. 2 /20 Indonesia) and MKAA (Museum of Asian African Conference), Jakarta - Bandung - Jakarta, October 27 - 31, 2015. Why all these commemorations? What do they reveal? What are their outcomes? What can be taken as reference? This book tries to answer these questions. Bandung in Global History The Bandung Conference belongs to many histories: local history (of Bandung, for example), national history (of Indonesia, for example), Asian history, Cold War history, colonial and post - colonial history, etc. Among the scholars working on the Bandung Conference in a historical perspective, Samir Amin proposed to look at “Bandung” in “Global History” 1 . The term “Bandung” here has at least three meanings: 1) A conference that took place in Bandung, Indonesia, on April 18 - 24, 1955; 2) An international movement characterised by neutralism or non - alignment vis - à - vis two blocs of superpowers East and West; 3) A period of world history in which the non - aligned countries were able to lead a development based on their national, popular and sovereign interests by taking advantage of the antagonism of the two blocs of superpowers. As for “Global History”, it is the history of the w orld focused on capitalism that developed progressively to be a world system controlling all aspects of societal life. In his article La trajectoire du capitalisme historique : la vocation tricontinentale du marxisme 2 , Samir Amin analyses the origin and the development of capitalism marked by three successive phases: 1) A long period of gestation that corresponds to the transition from a tributary system, whi ch was the general form of pre - modern societal organisation (approximately 1000 - 1800 AD). This period was marked by successive waves of gradual inventions that constituted the elements of capitalist modernity. The oldest wave came from China at the 11 th ce ntury, followed by the Arab - Persan World from the 13 th to the 15 th centuries and the Italian cities after the Crusades. The last wave was started with the European conquest of America and developed during three centuries of mercantilism (approximately 1500 - 1800 AD). The historical capitalism that imposed itself to the whole world is the product of this last wave. Its mode of accumulation was based on dispossession, which created a polarisation between centres and peripheries, and which gave a destructive di mension to capitalism, 1 Samir Amin, Histoire globale : une perspect ive afro - asiatique. Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2013. 276 p. 2 Samir Amin, ‘ La trajectoire du capitalisme historique : la vocation tricontinentale du marxisme’ in 5 Samir - selection lectures.pmd – codesria, http://www.codesria.org/IMG/pdf/4 - Samir_Amin_Sel ections.pdf?3082 The English version of the article is available at http://monthlyreview.org/2011/02/01/the - trajectory - of - hist orical - capitalism - and - marxisms - tricontinental - vocation/ BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book s , 2018, pp. 1 - 20. 3 /20 marked by the genocide of the indigenous people of America and Australia, the importation of slaves from Africa to America and the colonisation of Africa and Asia. 2) A short period of maturity marked by the domination of “the West” to the whole world (19 th century). It was initiated by two revolutions: British Industrial Revolution, which invented machines and urban working class; and French Revolution, which invented modern politic. Its mode of accumulation based on dispossession re ached its final form and became a fundamental law of social order. But it is also in this period that capitalism created conditions allowing the emerging and development of ‘alternatives’ called utopianism, socialism and communism. Thinkers and activists l ike Owen, Fourier, Proudhon, Marx, Engels,… lived in this period. The concept Communist Manifesto (1848) and action Commune de Paris (1871) were the products of this period. 3) A long period of decline for two main reasons. On one hand, following the Commu ne of Paris, capitalism entered into crisis due to its development into monopoly capitalism, which Lenin qualified it as “the highest stage of capitalism”, where its destructive dimension of accumulation started to dominate its progressive dimension. The m ost outstanding manifestations of the crisis were the two world wars, followed by the so called Cold War. On the other hand, towards the end of the 19 th century, the dominated peoples in the peripheries of capitalism, especially Africa, Asia but also Easte rn Europe and Latin America, started to take their right to control their own destiny. Among the first manifestations are Deobandi Muslim Movement in India (1867), Nahda Arab Renaissance in Egypt (around 1870), Indian National Congress (1885), Russian revo lutions (1905 and 1917), Iranian revolution (1907), Indonesian National Awakening (1908), Mexican revolution (1910 - 1920), Chinese revolution (1911), Egyptian revolution (1919), etc. These movements developed into national liberation movements that succeede d to achieve their objective in the aftermath of the second world war. Bandung (in the sense described at the beginning of this paper) is the crystallisation of these movements, the first wave of the rise of the peripheries of capitalism, now called the South. This victorious wave did however not last long. It started to go down in the 60s (with the overthrows and assassinations of its leaders such as Lumumba, Soekarno, Keita, Nkrumah, Guevara, Cabral, Nasser, …) and completely paralysed in the 90s (with the fall of Berlin Wall and the dissolution of Soviet Union). This happened for two reasons: internal weaknesses (lack of democracy, political instability, among others) and external attacks (recovery of capitalism). With the fall of the East Block in the 90s, the West Block turned into a Single Superpower and ruled the world alone by strengthening its control over five basic needs of BANDUNG LEGACY AND GLOBAL FUTURE: New Insights and Emerging Forces, New Delhi, Aakar Book s , 2018, pp. 1 - 20. 4 /20 survival of every nation: access to natural resources, technology, finance, media and armament. However, this new dominatio n did not last forever. In 2008, the most serious economic crisis in world history hit the heart of the centre of world capitalism and imperialism. On the other hand, in the same period, some countries in the peripheries of capitalism succeeded to consolid ate their economic achievement and enter into G20, the group of the 20 largest economies in the world. Academics, analysts, activists, media, speak about the “rise of the South”, the “Periphery”, the “Emerging” economies, exemplified by Brazil, Russia, Ind ia, China and South Africa, known as BRICS, but also Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey…. Thus, we witness since the beginning of the 21 st century the second