The Cold War and the Postcolonial Moment – Prehistory, Aims and Achievements of the Non-Aligned Movement 50 Years after Belgrade. Zurich: Prof. Dr. Nada Boškovska/Dr. Nataša Mišković, Department of Eastern European History, University of Zurich; Prof. Dr. Harald Fischer-Tiné, History of the Modern World, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH; Prof. Dr. Mridula Mukherjee, Nehru Memo, 03.06.2011-04.06.2011. Reviewed by Jürgen Dinkel Published on H-Soz-u-Kult (July, 2011) For many years, the Non-Aligned Movement the subsequent shaping of NAM. Hosted by the (NAM) has not been taken seriously in the studies University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Insti‐ of International Relations and by historians inter‐ tute of Technology, the conference brought togeth‐ ested in the Cold War or decolonization. It was er an array of international scholars and diplo‐ considered a phenomenon with a short history mats, reflecting both academic and practitioners’ and of marginal impact. However, most of the perspectives. In his keynote address, DIETMAR studies focusing on the NAM narrate a different ROTHERMUND (Heidelberg) detailed the larger story: They understand the NAM as a result of historical developments that shaped, and at times successful national liberation struggles of anti‐ also hindered, the movement. He showed, among colonial movements or as a reaction of govern‐ other things, how the personal friendship be‐ ments to the Cold War. The "founding fathers" of tween Nasser, Nehru and Tito was important for non-alignment, namely Indian Prime Minister the creation of the movement, and how the inter‐ Jawaharlal Nehru, Yugoslav President Josip Broz national circumstances following the 1956 Brioni Tito and Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser Agreement led to a gap of six years before the frst “invented" the idea in the 1950s to secure and to actual conference was held. Tracing the move‐ broaden the sovereignty of their states in interna‐ ment past the Sino-Indian war, the Soviet war in tional relations. Since that time, non-alignment Afghanistan and the developments of 1989, he has grown as a dominant diplomatic philosophy demonstrated how the NAM reincarnated as the in the Afro-Asian world. From a simple idea based Global South at the Jakarta conference in 1992. on anti-colonialism, anti-imperialism and anti- The other keynote address was given by BUDIMIR racism, it developed into a powerful concept of LONČAR (Zagreb), the last Foreign Minister of Yu‐ South-South cooperation. The frst NAM summit, goslavia. He detailed his own life-long experience which took place in Belgrade exactly 50 years ago, as a diplomat during the formation and develop‐ assembled twenty-five countries. Today, the move‐ ment of the non-aligned movement, and provided ment has 120 member states and 20 observers. context to the political forces that shaped it from The conference "The Cold War and the Post‐ the perspective of an active participant. colonial Moment" was convened against this The panels of the frst day focused primarily background to examine both the formation and on the postcolonial context and ideological origins H-Net Reviews of the NAM, those of the second day on the Cold policy. RAJIV SIKRI (New Delhi), a former senior War and Yugoslavia’s role. ČEDOMIR ŠTRBAC (Bel‐ Indian diplomat, underlined the fact that non- grade), and KWEKU AMPIAH (Leeds) emphasized alignment was one among several strategies of In‐ the continuities: Štrbac, former Yugoslav ambas‐ dian foreign policy. His colleague CHAN‐ sador to India, maintained that the concepts of co‐ DRASHEKAR DASGUPTA (New Delhi), gave an in‐ existence and non-alignment have a long tradi‐ sightful example of this in India’s choice to re‐ tion in Yugoslav foreign policy. Ampiah demon‐ main a member of the Commonwealth. JOŽE PIR‐ strated that the Belgrade conference was replete JEVEC (Koper) directed the attention to the frst with references to the Bandung conference, con‐ Yugoslav ambassadors in New Delhi, Josip Djerdja cluding with the counterfactual statement, that and Josip Vilfan. According to him, Djerdja was without Bandung, there would have been no Bel‐ the frst Yugoslav diplomat to speak about a “third grade. MADELEINE HERREN (Heidelberg) and force" and a policy of “active coexistence" be‐ CAROLIEN STOLTE (Leiden) on the other hand tween East and West in 1951, influencing the laid their focus on discontinuities between the an‐ thinking of Tito and his chief ideologist Edvard ticolonial movements of the interwar period and Kardelj. the later NAM. Herren challenged several of the The historical context in which the NAM conventional starting points for the movement as emerged was present in every paper. Some speak‐ well as related assumptions on its underlying mo‐ ers paid special attention to this aspect, challeng‐ tivations. One of these was the World Congress of ing the view that NAM was just a result of the Oppressed Peoples, convened in Brussels in 1927 Cold War. Instead, SVETOZAR RAJAK (London) ar‐ to found the League against Imperialism, which gued that the Yugoslav leadership began search‐ has subsequently been over-emphasized for its ing for common ground between the two Blocs parallels to the later NAM. Herren further soon after the break-up with the Soviet Bloc in stressed that NAM was a movement, not an orga‐ 1948. However, it was the normalization of rela‐ nization, and should be treated as such. Stolte tions with the USSR starting in 1954 which al‐ treated the Asian Relations Conference held in lowed Tito maneuvering space for his policy of New Delhi in 1947 as a transitional phase in Asian equidistance. ITTY ABRAHAM (Austin) spoke relations, and demonstrated that this conference, about the links between postcolonial issues and although often mentioned in passing as a prelude non-alignment. Decolonization coincided with the to Bandung and the later NAM, was actually much rise of the territorial nation-state as predominant more closely related to the Asianist enthusiasm of form of political organization around the world. the interwar period. To clarify this, research has International recognition of sovereignty became a to pay more attention to the semantic of the priority for all governments, and the self-imposed speeches of anti-colonial activists and non-aligned limits of the NAM critique of the existing interna‐ politicians. Scholars still tend to project back the tional order were conditioned accordingly. understanding of the term “non-alignment" as it ADITYA MUKHERJEE (New Delhi) looked at the was used during the 1960s and 1970s into times economic foundations of non-alignment, demon‐ when the term was only rarely employed. strating how concerns surrounding developmen‐ Another debate evolved around the question tal issues influenced India’s share to NAM. Finally, who the main actors of NAM were. MRIDULA ELHAM MANEA (Zurich) and IVAN IVEKOVIĆ MUKHERJEE (New Delhi), director of the Nehru (Cairo) broadened the discussion by looking at Memorial Museum and Library and co-editor of Arab elites, who are either organized in a tradi‐ Nehru’s Selected Works, insisted on Nehru’s tow‐ tional tribal system as in Libya, Saudi-Arabia or ering leadership in the shaping of Indian foreign Syria, or controlling their national state by means 2 H-Net Reviews of a strong army, as in Egypt. All these papers ent story and shows a marked interest in interna‐ showed that a global perspective is indispensable tional developments. NAOKO SHIMAZU (London) to explore the variety of aspects and contributions then looked at the Bandung conference from a constituting the movement. cultural perspective, detailing the performance of Relatively few papers dealt with the history of that conference as an event that consciously at‐ the movement after Belgrade 1961, mainly focus‐ tempted to engage the public. JÜRGEN DINKEL ing on the question whether there was a clearly (Giessen) examined the various non-aligned sum‐ defined non-aligned policy and how it changed mits as consciously shaped media events, demon‐ over the time. LORENZ LÜTHI (Montreal) exam‐ strating how non-alignment was performed to the ined the policies of Yugoslavia, Egypt and India, press. He argued that the public attention the comparing their dealings with the German ques‐ non-aligned states gained during the conferences tion, with nuclear weapons, the Indochina conflict has kept the loose supranational coalition togeth‐ and the Arab-Israel conflict. He concluded that er and has enabled the NAM to influence world there was hardly any coherent NAM policy, each politics in various degrees. NATAŠA MIŠKOVIĆ country acting in accordance with its national in‐ (Zurich) presented Belgrade as the venue for the terest. AMIT DAS GUPTA (Berlin/Bremen) pro‐ first NAM summit. She showed that the confer‐ posed that the non-aligned countries did not keep ence was of absolute priority to Tito’s regime and themselves busy with the German question, but cost the country a large amount of money. Involv‐ the construction of the Berlin Wall less than three ing many Belgraders in its preparation, the sum‐ weeks before the opening of the Belgrade summit, mit contributed to the stabilization of Tito’s helped the two Germanies keep the NAM busy regime. In the aftermath, the early 1960s would with allurements and threats over the recognition be regarded as the golden age of Titoism. On a of the GDR. TVRTKO JAKOVINA (Zagreb) demon‐ more abstract level, GOPALAN BALACHANDRAN strated how Yugoslav foreign policy changed after (Geneva) showed in a witty thought experiment Tito’s death in 1980, making a point that the policy how important it is to critically analyse the histo‐ towards NAM and the United Nations was not riographical tradition of NAM literature. This identical. All these papers argued that the term group of papers highlighted the soft power of in‐ non-aligned policy as a term refers to a very fexi‐ ternational movements and conferences.