India may become the leader of the renewed International Non-Aligned Movement
| Author | Ruslan Bortnik |
| Published date | 03 April 2023 |
| Publication title | Statesman, The (India) |
After all, the world is rapidly polarizing and is divided into military-political and socio-economic blocs and groups of countries. At the same time, the United States, NATO with allies (about 60 countries formally united in a necklace of formal and informal NATO alliances, AUKUS, Ramstein +) and the Russian Federation with allies (CSTO, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, etc.) are actively trying to draw third countries into war, creating funnels (whirlpools) of crises and relations of a political, economic and technological nature. But this statement is true not only for the confrontation between the US and the Russian Federation, but also for the strategic competition between the US and China. The big countries are trying to force the rest to live in a flat black and white world, while these countries themselves see many colors and shades in the pursuit of their national benefit.
The geopolitical discourse in Europe and North America is still largely built on the basis of a bipolar vision of the world and the system of international relations. In which the confrontation between the US and the USSR during the Cold War was briefly replaced by the struggle between liberal democracies and authoritarian regimes, and today it is a hybrid war between the West and the Russian Federation, and competition between the US and China. Such a view is certainly important for nation-building and identity formation, and mobilization of social forces, but, nevertheless, it is not sufficient not only for building effective relations with many states and unions of the state beyond the borders of Europe and North America but also for state strategizing in general.
At the same time, most countries of the world reasonably (although not always consciously) do not want to take sides – participants in a conflict with an indefinite ending. They do not seek to make their political, economic and social sacrifices for the sake of the interests of global confrontation. Moreover, most of the world's countries (out of 197 recognized) are de facto and de jure non-aligned or even have an internationally recognized "neutral status".
This positioning has deep historical roots and was formalized with the creation of the International Non-Aligned Movement (IMN) in September 1961. Then the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement – 25 countries, many of which have only recently gained independence, called "to refrain from using the mechanisms of collective defense in the interests of any of the major powers". The creation of the Movement was preceded by the Bandung Conference in 1955, tripartite consultations between Jawaharlal Nehru (India), Broz Tito (Yugoslavia) and Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt) in 1956. As a condition of membership, the states of the Non-Aligned Movement have committed themselves not to become part of a multilateral military alliance (such as NATO or the Warsaw Pact), or a signatory to a bilateral military agreement with one of the "superpowers". Although this obligation was later violated by individual countries.
Nowadays the Non-Aligned Movement(NAM) unites 120 member countries or 62% of the...
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